Hacker who accessed Trump’s Twitter account is questioned by police

Photo: Depositphotos.com
Photo: Depositphotos.com

A Dutch hacker who said last month he had successfully logged into US president Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been questioned by police in the Netherlands, the Volkskrant has reported.

At the time, both Twitter and the White House dismissed claims that Victor Gevers, an ethical hacker, had managed to log into Trump’s Twitter account by guessing his password.

Magazine Vrij Nederland said in October Gevers had managed to access Trump’s Twitter account for the second time, after first gaining access with two other hackers four years ago.

The VN account, also published in English, says that Gevers guessed Trump’s password was maga2020! in just seven attempts and that the president had switched off the two stage authentication process which should have been in place.

The new investigation in the Netherlands is an independent Dutch probe and has not been requested by the US, a police spokesman told the paper.

Gevers told the BBC that he had more data which proved he had accessed the president’s account, and that he had not disclosed it because it did not add anything to alerting officials about the risk.

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