49ers, Chiefs Among NFL Teams to Have Twitter Accounts Hacked

The San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs are getting ready to play in the Super Bowl on [...]

By Brian Jones

The San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs are getting ready to play in the Super Bowl on Sunday. However, they had to deal with a serious matter first as they were two of several NFL teams to have their Twitter account hacked. According to NBC News, "OurMine, a Saudi hacking account that promotes its own cybersecurity services, said it hacked a number of the league's accounts on its Twitter page." The Chicago Bears were one of the first teams to be hacked as well as the Green Bay Packers.

OurMine was then able to hack Twitter accounts of other teams as well as the NFL's official account. NFL Reporter Dov Kleiman started a Twitter thread of accounts that appeared to be hacked and it appears that 15 accounts have been compromised. The 49ers and the Chiefs confirmed to NBC News their Twitter accounts were hacked.

"We are aware of the issue and are working with NFL cyber security and the platforms to address it," the 49ers said in a statement.

The NFL was made aware of the hacked accounts and released a statement on the situation.

"​On Monday, the NFL Cybersecurity department became aware of a breach of a league-related social media account," the NFL said in a press release. "Targeted breaches and additional failed attempts were discovered across the league and team accounts. The NFL took immediate action and directed the teams to secure their social media accounts and prevent further unauthorized access. Simultaneously, the league alerted the social media platform providers and, with their assistance, secured all league and club accounts. We continue to work diligently with the teams, which have resumed normal operations.

"The NFL and teams are cooperating with its social media platform providers and law enforcement."

OurMine claims to be a "white hat" hacking group which means cyber trespassers who breach with good intentions. Their reason for hacking the accounts was to "show people that everything is hackable."

"We pick our targets randomly, and we already tried to contact them before the tweets but we didn't receive any response yet," the group said.

This hacking incident comes days before Super Bowl LIV. The 49ers are looking for their sixth NFL championship while their Chiefs are looking to win their first title in 50 years.

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