A 25-year-old Frenchman has been arrested for trying to gain access to President Barack Obama’s official Twitter account, as well as other notable public figures.
The man, whose name wasn’t released, is unemployed but obviously has some technical skill up his sleeve. French police official Captain Adeline Champagnat said the suspect was able to retrieve passwords from Twitter administrators.
From there, he was abled to log in and see personal data from every Twitter account holder. Champagnat said there was evidence that he looked specifically at the official accounts of politicians and music/movie stars, but didn’t cause any real damage.
“He didn’t get as far as their personal accounts. But he had gained control of Twitter,” she said in a Reuters interview.
The FBI contacted French officials last year because it had reason to believe that someone inside the country was gaining access to confidential Twitter files.
“…he did screen grabs of certain confidential data which he tried to post on blogs that are reserved for pirates or hackers,” said Champagnat.
The man has been charged with Internet fraud and is awaiting an official hearing.
