Popular PUBG Twitch streamer and former Counter Strike pro Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek had his Twitter hacked. In addition to threatening to release nude photos, the hacker also spammed the account with follower requests for bunch of other Twitter accounts.
The hacker got ahold of Shroud's account on Saturday morning. A stream of Tweets followed that contained links to other twitter accounts, threats to release nude photos, and a stream of hateful language aimed at other Twitch stars, including DrDisRespect, who recently suffered from a hack of his own Twitter account. The hacker also claimed to have access to photos of Shroud’s girlfriend Hannah "Bnans" Kennedy. They promised to release the photos once a few specific Twitter accounts gained enough followers.
Shroud, currently the second most popular Twitch streamer according to subscriber count, has a huge following which unfortunately received the brunt of the spam. Even though Shroud was the victim of the attack, most folks don’t want to see that kind of hate speech in their feeds.
Social media accounts hold a lot of weight for streamers who make names for themselves online. The more famous the streamer, the more desirable these accounts become for hackers. No one has immunity to this kind of attack, as even famous Fortnite streamer Ninja recently had his Instagram hacked. A hack and subsequent spam can push impatient users away when they see their feeds filling up with nonsense. This can cause severe headaches for streamers whose audiences drive their financial success.
Lucky for Shroud, he noticed quickly. It only took him about 30 minutes to get his account back. He handled the situation well and apologized to his fans with a cat photo. He removed the Tweets as soon as he got control of his account.
This seems like a growing trend for streamers. Hackers want to leverage these accounts to gain their own followers and to make the streamers look bad. Usually, social media hacks relate to poor password management and don’t actually give hackers access to files on the user’s computer, which means that the threat of nudes doesn’t hold any weight.
While no one should have to worry about this kind of thing, streamers should understand that their fame and large follower accounts make them targets. In the case that these social media hackings do simply relate to poor password management (like using the same password for multiple accounts), streamers should take responsibility to lock down their accounts as much as possible and patch up any holes that hackers can push through.
For now, it seems Shroud's Twitter account has returned to normal.
Source: The Gamer