A hacking group known as Chuckling Squad has something of a history of targeting high-profile Twitter accounts. Perhaps none more so than Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, whose own account was hacked by the “shits and giggles” threat actors in August 2019. Previously, the Chuckling Squad came to the attention of the media and law enforcement alike when it briefly managed to post a stream of offensive messages from the London Metropolitan Police’s officially verified Twitter account. Now both Mariah Carey, with 21.4 million Twitter followers and Adam Sandler with 2.4 million, have fallen victim to the Chuckling Squad hackers.
Mariah Carey, the five-time Grammy-winning recording artist, fell victim to the Chuckling Squad hackers on December 31.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the official Twitter account of the Uncut Gems actor, Adam Sandler, was hacked during the afternoon of January 2.
Although it is too early to know precisely how the Chuckling Squad hackers compromised the Twitter accounts of Mariah Carey and Adam Sandler, it is known how the Jack Dorsey account takeover was done. That involved a SIM-swapping strategy, also known as sim-jacking, where Dorsey’s mobile phone provider was tricked into porting the telephone number to a smartphone belonging to the hackers. Once they have control of that number, the hackers can gain access to two-factor authentication codes sent by SMS. This is thought to be how Chuckling Squad achieves access and control of the targeted Twitter social media accounts of the stars.
