How often are you ever going to write a sentence where you put Barack Obama together with Britney Spears? Never, unless you’re writing about 24-year-old Francois Cousteix from Puy-de-Dôme, France, known as Hacker Croll. French authorities have finally tracked down the man who hacked into the Twitter feeds of both Barack Obama and Britney Spears back in April 2009. Hacker Croll didn’t do it for malicious reasons; he just wanted to see if he could do it. He could; now he’s facing 2 years in jail and a $40,000 fine.
As it turns out, he is incredibly clever. You see, Croll has no special computer training. He’s just an ordinary end user, and his hacking prowess is based on his ability to answer a few simple questions. Posing as an administrator, he simply guessed the answer to their secret account security questions and got right in. He took some screenshots, played around for a few hours, then was gone. Just not gone enough to avoid getting pinched for it.
Image: New York Daily News
Tags: man who hacked Obama Twitter account arrested, Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Hacker Croll, French hacker arrested, hackers, cybersecurity, Puy-de-Dôme, France, Francois Cousteix
