Skip to main content

Burger King Twitter account hacked, McDonald’s was (probably) lovin’ it

Burger King hack lead
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Burger King’s social media manager has a whopper of a problem. This afternoon, a hacker or group of hackers took over the fast food chain’s Twitter account, and changed the account name to its greasy nemesis “McDonald’s.” The hackers also claimed in the account’s bio that Burger King had been bought out by McDonald’s “because the Whopper flopped.”

More than two hours after the first unauthorized tweet went live, @BurgerKing remained in the hacker’s hands. Twitter suspended the account at about 1:15pm ET, but not before the perpetrators managed to send out a flurry of offensive tweets, which were quickly retweeted thousands of times.

Recommended Videos

More than 20,000 people started following @BurgerKing while it was under the hackers’ control.

The perpetrator of the @BurgerKing account hijacking repeatedly called out @DFNCTSC, or the Defonic Team Screen Name Club, a group of hackers that broke into Paris Hilton’s Sidekick back in 2005 and released her racy photos onto the Web. One member of the group, a 17-year-old from Massachusetts, pled guilty to the hack in September 2005.

At one point, the hackers asked users to “follow us” with links to massively popular Anonymous Twitter account @YourAnonNews. A later tweet from @YourAnonNews stated that “the King has been dethroned.” So far, that’s the closest thing we have to an admission that @YourAnonNews was involved in the hack.

The first mention of the @BurgerKing hack appears to have come from Twitter user @57UN, or “Stun,” a self-described “Linux fanatic,” whose Twitter profile indicates that “she” is from the Netherlands. It’s not clear whether Stun had anything to do with the hack, or if she was simply one of the first to know about it. In a later tweet, Stun mentioned that, “if you’re a large multinational company, don’t make your password ‘whopper123.'”

It is also not yet clear who is in charge of Burger King’s Twitter account. The company has an internal media department. Another company, Coyne PR, also provides public relations services for Burger King. We have reached out to both Burger King and Coyne about the incident, but have not yet heard a response.

After Twitter had shut down Burger King’s account, McDonald’s sent out a tweet clarifying that it had “nothing to do with the hacking.” 

See some of the all-out mess below (some NSFW language):

BK hack
Image used with permission by copyright holder
BK hack 2
Image used with permission by copyright holder
BK hack 3
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Topics
Andrew Couts
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
How to get verified on Instagram Threads
A verified account on Instagram Threads.

Like Twitter and Instagram, Instagram Threads allows users to become verified to confirm their identities and access some exclusive features. Similar to Twitter's verification process, you'll need to pay a monthly fee to be verified on Threads, so keep that price in mind as you get your verified Threads account set up.

So, without further ado, here's how to get verified on Instagram Threads in a few straightforward steps.

Read more
How to remove location data from your iPhone photos
How to transfer photos from an iPhone to an iPhone

We all love making memories, and a great way to collect those memories is to take a quick snap of a gorgeous landscape, a party in full swing, or a particularly incredible meal. The Apple iPhone now also adds a location to your pictures, meaning it can collate those images together into a location-themed album, or show you all the shots you've taken in a specific location. It's a fun little addition, and it's one that adds a lot of personality to the Photos app.

Read more
‘Photoshopped’ royal photo causes a stir
The Princess of Wales with her children.

[UPDATE: In a message posted on social media on Monday morning, Princess Kate said that she herself edited the image, and apologized for the fuss that the picture had caused. “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing," she wrote, adding, "I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."]

Major press agencies have pulled a photo of the U.K.’s Princess of Wales and her children amid concerns that it has been digitally manipulated.

Read more