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We reported back in 2013 about Twitter’s rollout of the two-step authentication system. This system strengthens the security of a person’s Twitter account, away from unauthorized use, especially with hackers and phishers. This is also currently offered in most social media related companies.

While Twitter is recommending this security setup to its users, its own Chief Finance Officer, Anthony Noto (@anthonynoto), looks a bit too lax with his own Twitter account. This then led to a hijack of his account yesterday, February 11, TechCrunch reports.

Noto’s account during the hack was reportedly plagued by over 300 spam tweets, which was then disseminated to more than 13,000 followers, and lasted for about 20 minutes.

After Noto finally gained control of his Twitter account, he simply sent a tweet saying:

Back on the field! — Anthony anthonynoto ) February 10, 2015 Noto (@



While it is quite a given fact that this happens to many people each day, it is quite surreal how the Chief Finance Officer himself got hacked while Twitter promotes two-factor authentication for accounts on the website.

Twitter has still yet to give a statement about the hack. According to the report, the attack might not have been targeted, but might instead be related to an “old, forgotten API key left behind on a leaky third-party service.”

Source: TechCrunch