Gizmodo Twitter Account Hacked by Clan VV3 (Video)

Clan VV3, a group of hackers that specializes in “jacking” Twitter and YouTube accounts, has managed to take over the profile of tech news website Gizmodo.

Apparently, it all started when the hackers compromised the iCloud account of Mat Honan, a former Gizmodo employee. According to Honan, that allowed them to take over his Google and Twitter accounts.

Since his Twitter account had been linked at some point to the one of Gizmodo, the members of Clan VV3 were able to gain access to that one as well and started publishing their own tweets.

Unfortunately for Honan, the hackers also wiped the data from his iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air, most of it being lost, probably for good.

“I still can’t get into Gmail. My phone and iPads are down (but are restoring). Apple tells me that the remote wipe is likely irrecoverable without serious forensics. Because I’m a jerk who doesn’t back up data, I’ve lost at more than a year’s worth of photos, emails, documents, and more. And, really, who knows what else,” he wrote in a blog post.

After everything was sorted out, Gizmodo regained access to the account and provided the 416,000 followers with a brief explanation as to what happened.

“To be clear, a former Gizmodo employee's Twitter account appears to have been hacked, and that is how those tweets appeared on,” read a post made by Gizmodo after the account had been recovered.

“Apologies to those who saw those tweets. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.”

As far as Clan VV3 is concerned, the list of Twitter accounts they’ve compromised in the past, according to their website, is impressive. It includes the accounts of Tami Roman (664,000 followers) Whitney Cummings (659,000 followers), Booker Huffman (300,000 followers) and many more.

They also managed to compromise the YouTube accounts of MabeInAmerica and Yonas.