Vunderkind
Social Member
Naoki Hiroshima is one of the few people with a one-character username on Twitter. The software developer from California has been the proud possessor of the Twitter handle @N since 2007.
Naoki wrote once on his blog that he had once been offered $50,000 to sell the twitter username and there had been previous attempts by people to steal the handle.
He said that this time, some hacker took over some of his other online accounts and offered to return them back for a ransom: the twitter handle @N in exchange for his other accounts.
Hiroshima said the hacker breached his GoDaddy account and used the account settings to infiltrate and take over Hiroshima’s personal email address.
In emails between the hacker and Hiroshima, the hacker told him that he had accessed his GoDaddy account by uncovering the last four digits of his credit card number. This he said he did by contacting PayPal – where Hiroshima’s account is in - and pretending to be an employee.
The hacker said after that, he used “some very simple engineering tactics to obtain the last four digits of your card.”
PayPal Denies
PayPal has released a statement to deny giving out Mr. Hiroshima’s details to the hacker. "We have carefully reviewed our records and can confirm that there was a failed attempt made to gain this customer's information by contacting PayPal.
"PayPal did not divulge any credit card details related to this account."
GoDaddy, on the other hand, has said that one of its employees was “socially engineered” to give the hacker the information required to access Hiroshima’s account.
Social engineering is a process of tricking someone into doing something they ordinarily wouldn’t – in this case, giving information that led to the compromise of Hiroshima’s GoDaddy account.
GoDaddy explained the takeover like this: "Our review of the situation reveals that the hacker was already in possession of a large portion of the customer information needed to access the account at the time he contacted GoDaddy.
"The hacker then socially engineered an employee to provide the remaining information needed to access the customer account.”
But it was too late
Mr. Hiroshima had to give up the @N handle, changing it for the first time since 2007 to @N_is_stolen_
He wrote that he gave up his username because the hacker threatened to compromise data and websites owned by Mr. Hiroshima.
"I remembered what had happened to @mat [Mat Honan's digital presence was erased in an hour after attacks by hackers] and concluded that giving up the account right away would be the only way to avoid an irreversible disaster," Hiroshima wrote.
When asked why Twitter hadn’t returned Mr. Hiroshima’s handle back to him now that he has recovered his other online accounts, a spokesperson said: "While we don't comment on individual accounts, we are investigating the report."
The thrill of the heist is not in the utility
Mr. Hiroshima has tweeted from his new account that the hacker appears to have deleted his old account: "It seems the guy who stole @N from me just deleted the account. It's available but unavailable to take."
Naoki wrote once on his blog that he had once been offered $50,000 to sell the twitter username and there had been previous attempts by people to steal the handle.
He said that this time, some hacker took over some of his other online accounts and offered to return them back for a ransom: the twitter handle @N in exchange for his other accounts.
Hiroshima said the hacker breached his GoDaddy account and used the account settings to infiltrate and take over Hiroshima’s personal email address.
In emails between the hacker and Hiroshima, the hacker told him that he had accessed his GoDaddy account by uncovering the last four digits of his credit card number. This he said he did by contacting PayPal – where Hiroshima’s account is in - and pretending to be an employee.
The hacker said after that, he used “some very simple engineering tactics to obtain the last four digits of your card.”
PayPal Denies
PayPal has released a statement to deny giving out Mr. Hiroshima’s details to the hacker. "We have carefully reviewed our records and can confirm that there was a failed attempt made to gain this customer's information by contacting PayPal.
"PayPal did not divulge any credit card details related to this account."
GoDaddy, on the other hand, has said that one of its employees was “socially engineered” to give the hacker the information required to access Hiroshima’s account.
Social engineering is a process of tricking someone into doing something they ordinarily wouldn’t – in this case, giving information that led to the compromise of Hiroshima’s GoDaddy account.
GoDaddy explained the takeover like this: "Our review of the situation reveals that the hacker was already in possession of a large portion of the customer information needed to access the account at the time he contacted GoDaddy.
"The hacker then socially engineered an employee to provide the remaining information needed to access the customer account.”
But it was too late
Mr. Hiroshima had to give up the @N handle, changing it for the first time since 2007 to @N_is_stolen_
He wrote that he gave up his username because the hacker threatened to compromise data and websites owned by Mr. Hiroshima.
"I remembered what had happened to @mat [Mat Honan's digital presence was erased in an hour after attacks by hackers] and concluded that giving up the account right away would be the only way to avoid an irreversible disaster," Hiroshima wrote.
When asked why Twitter hadn’t returned Mr. Hiroshima’s handle back to him now that he has recovered his other online accounts, a spokesperson said: "While we don't comment on individual accounts, we are investigating the report."
The thrill of the heist is not in the utility
Mr. Hiroshima has tweeted from his new account that the hacker appears to have deleted his old account: "It seems the guy who stole @N from me just deleted the account. It's available but unavailable to take."
