The Latest in IT Security

Jeremy Clarkson, the controversial presenter of BBC’s “Top Gear” programme, has had his Twitter account compromised by spammers… and he wants his revenge.

It appears that the outspoken TV presenter and columnist, who memorably had a custard pie thrown in his face by green campaigners when he went to pick up an honorary degree at Oxford, was just the latest in a long line of Twitter users to have their account hijacked by diet spammers.

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If any of Clarkson’s 1.3 million Twitter followers clicked on the link, they would have visited a bogus news website, promoting an Acai Berry diet solution:

Of course, we have seen bogus news sites promoting Acai Berry diets many many times before, and we have even reported recently on how the operators of fake news websites like these have been fined millions of dollars for scamming the public.

Chances are that Jeremy Clarkson either had his password phished, guessed or cracked, or that he granted a rogue third party application rights to post from his account.

If he has any sense, Jeremy Clarkson should change his password (making sure that he chooses a hard-to-crack new password, and that he’s not using the same password anywhere else on the net – if he is, those other sites also need a brand new password) and revoke the rights of any application connected to his Twitter account that he doesn’t recognise.

What makes this Twitter hack somewhat different from that which hit Doctor Who actress Karen Gillan or technology pundit John C Dvorak in the past, is Clarkson’s response:

Somehow I don’t think Clarkson is likely to mete out his punishment. In all likelihood, Clarkson was not actually targeted by the hackers but was just one of the many Twitter users each day who have their accounts compromised by Acai Berry spammers.

In short, the Acai Berry diet spammers just got lucky hitting such a popular Twitter user.

Rather than plan his revenge, Clarkson might be wiser to smarten up about computer security and hope that Twitter introduces two factor authentication soon.