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Jason Miller, who is Donald Trump’s former spokesperson, is managing up Gettr, a new Twitter-like social media platform that started on July 1st, 2021.

The platform is similar to Twitter. Both of them share multiple features such as the trending section, the ability to follow other accounts, like posts, and upload pictures and videos. The new social media platform even has apps available in the Google Play Store and App Store.

Though the What’s New section of the app’s description on both Google Play Store and the App Store touts the app’s “initial launch,” there are posts on Gettr that go back to 2015. Several posts from right-wing media network Newsmax can also be seen from April 15, 2015.

Accordingly to Business Insider, The accounts of several Trump aides and supporters were compromised. Pages linked to Mike Pompeo, Steve Bannon, and Marjorie Taylor-Greene, among others, altered with variations of the message: “@JubaBaghdad was here 🙂 ^^ free Palestine ^^.”

gttr-accounts-hacked

Miller, who was also targeted in the attack, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment but told Insider his site wasn’t compromised for long.

“You know you’re shaking things up when they come after you,” he told Insider. “The problem was detected and sealed in a matter of minutes, and all the intruder was able to accomplish was to change a few user names. The situation has been rectified, and we’ve already had more than half a million users sign up for our exciting new platform!”

On July 4th, 2021, at 8:30 a.m. EST, the accounts were first hacked, and most of them returned to their original state by 10 a.m. EST.

@JubaBaghdad told Insider that although GETTR fixed the original bug, he could still gather user information from personal accounts, including email addresses and birth dates.

On Monday, @JubaBaghdad told Insider that although GETTR fixed the initial bug, he could still scrape user data from individual accounts, including email addresses and date of birth.

In a question inquiring about his reason for such an attack, he responded “just for fun” and further added that it had been “easy” from a technical standpoint — it took him approximately 20 minutes of the job.

He further said that he is a “bounty hunter” of software bugs, hunting down and informing problematic code in exchange for a monetary reward from organizations like Google or Facebook. He concluded his message by the following statement:

“They should not publish the website before making sure everything, or at least almost everything, is secure”.

It’s no surprise that @JubaBaghdad could hack the accounts considering that GETTR’s source code is available online. Apparently, their admin page lets them add and remove trending topics.

 

In today’s day and age, when everything about us is available on social media, we should be extra careful concerning what we are uploading online, who has access to that information, and how we can protect our data on various social media platforms.

Let’s look at some privacy tips to protect yourself and your data on social media platforms.

  • Use complex passwords for your social media accounts. If possible, enable two-factor authentication as well.
  • Avoid any suspicious-looking social media messages. These messages often contain malicious links and attachments.
  • Avoid uploading any personal information about yourself, such as your date of birth or contact information. Such information can be used in identity theft.
  • Only accept friend requests and connections from people that you actually know in real life.
  • Ensure that you are well aware and in control of all the social media accounts you may have created in the past.
  • For an extra layer of online privacy and data protection, make sure to use a reliable and strong VPN when accessing your social media accounts.