As we mentioned in a previous post, hacktivism activity has been down in 2016 — with the exception of Anonymous. However, there is a new hacktivist group that has been showing up in SurfWatch Labs’ data — OurMine.
Over the last two months, OurMine has been the top trending hacktivist group.
OurMine made multiple headlines over the past month after successfully hacking the LinkedIn and Pinterest accounts of billionaire Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The hack provided some embarrassment for Zuckerberg, as it was discovered that the password he used for both accounts was “dadada.”
The group’s latest target was the CEO of Pokemon GO, John Hanke. OurMine hacked into Hanke’s Twitter account, saying that the hack was “for Brazil.”
Here are the top trending targets associated with the OurMine hacking team over the last two months.
What is OurMine After?
What separates OurMine from other hacktivists is their claim for hacking. In each of the group’s attacks, they claim they are a security firm that is testing their target’s security, and have even gone as far to say they were going to offer security services to their victims. The hacking group even has a website advertising their services.
OurMine has shown an aptitude for hacking. In several of their hacks — like Mark Zuckerberg’s social media — they were able to take advantage of a weak password to compromise the account. In other attacks — such as the attack against Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai’s Quora account — they have been able to exploit website platform vulnerabilities.
The group isn’t only after high profile businessman. OurMine has also targeted Minecraft player accounts, defaced websites like TechCrunch, and completely disabled the servers of HSBC bank.
It appears that all of these attacks are used as a method to promote their services. OurMine has yet to cause significant damage with any of their attacks other than a minor nuisance. Is this group’s supposed white hat hacking attempts really an effort to promote their security services and point out security weaknesses for companies? Only time will tell.
SurfWatch Labs, Inc. 