Fetchr’s Twitter account was hacked for few hours before the company recovered it yesterday

Update: The hack lasted for fifteen minutes only, according to someone from the social media team of Fetchr, who had left a comment on our Facebook page.

Dubai-based logistics startup Fetchr’s Twitter account was hacked on Monday before the company completely restored it yesterday. The hacker didn’t really seem to care too much about tweeting and posted only one tweet even, though the account remained hacked for hours.

Hacker’s tweet (which has now been deleted) did get people confusing with some users asking what’s closing down.

But what Fetchr tweeted after restoring the account was perhaps even more confusing.

https://twitter.com/fetchr/status/894797135501295616

We are not the only ones. It confused other users too including our friends at Lovin Dubai.

Fetchr later replied to everyone asking questions and explained the whole thing.

What’s interesting is that Fetchr is not very active on Twitter. The last time they had tweeted before their account got hacked was almost a month ago. Yes, they’re very active when it comes to replying to users’ tweet but the company itself doesn’t really tweet much. They perhaps want to use it only as a channel to answer users’ questions which in our opinion is definitely under-utilization of  a resource like Twitter.

Securing your company’s Social Media Properties

It’s very strange to see how some startups and companies of the region fail to do basics right when it comes to securing their social media properties across the web.

There are a lot of companies that don’t change the passwords or remove a Page Administrator after the employee leaves the company. It’s a very basic thing and should be part of clearance of all the employees who handle social media profiles of any company or a startup. We know atleast three Social Media Professionals from the region who’ve switched their jobs within last 6-12 months and are still an Administrator on their former employer’s Facebook Page.

Another thing that could help ensure security is two-factor authentication. Yes, it could be annoying at times but is extremely important to secure your company’s account.

That’s it for now. But maybe we can do a detailed follow-up post with some tips on securing social media profiles of your startup.

Hat Tip: Waleed Rashed