© Stan Szeto | 2018 Dec 9
Super Bowl week is off to a funky start. On Monday, multiple NFL teams, as well as the NFL itself, had their social media accounts hacked. The 49ers were one of those teams, having their Twitter account’s profile picture, banner and name changed.
Screenshot of the 49ers’ account as of 2:35 p.m.
At the time of writing this story, the following 15 NFL teams also had their accounts hacked:
Kansas City Chiefs
Houston Texans
Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos
Indianapolis Colts
Cleveland Browns
Los Angeles Chargers
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings (Instagram account)
Philadelphia Eagles
Chicago Bears
Dallas Cowboys
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
New York Giants
With some of the hacks, there was a message posted, warning the users of the accounts to upgrade their security. According to CBS Sports, this was done by a group called “OurMine”:
An early morning tweet from the team’s official Twitter account announced that they have been sold to Saudi Arabia official Turki Al-Sheikh. In the minutes following that befuddling announcement came the news from the account that it was hacked by a Saudi-based group called “OurMine.” The explained that they decided to hack the Bears official account to “announce that we are back” and to “show people that everything is hackable.”
After news got out that this was a mere hoax on the part of OurMine, Pride of Detroit, a blog dedicated to Detroit Lions news, asked for the hacked Bears Twitter account to trade Khalil Mack over to the Motor City for a sixth round pick. The Bears account countered with the offer of $1 for Mack. Luckily for Chicago, Twitter negotiations are non-binding.
The 49ers have not yet responded to a request for comment. The story will be updated accordingly.