Threat Management

GoDaddy admits giving up info that led to Twitter username extortion

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When Naoki Hiroshima had his coveted @N Twitter username stolen in an elaborate extortion plot involving simple social engineering techniques, the frustrated developer pointed the finger at GoDaddy and PayPal for being careless with his data.

In a post, Todd Redfoot, Chief Information Security Officer with GoDaddy, explained that the attacker had a large amount of Hiroshima's information when he contacted GoDaddy. “The hacker then socially engineered an employee to provide the remaining information needed to access the customer account,” Redfoot said.

While GoDaddy is taking measures to ensure a similar incident does not occur, PayPal has taken a stance it did nothing wrong.

“PayPal did not divulge any credit card details related to this account,” according to a post. “This individual's PayPal account was not compromised.”

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