Burger King, as of this writing, is facing a major social media crisis: the company that brought you the Whopper has made a huge one, allowing its Twitter account to be hacked because of an all too simple password that’s “Whopper123.”
The attackers have defaced Burger King’s Twitter account to include the McDonald’s Logo, and altered the password and the @ username. It was changed from @BK to @BurgerKing one hour ago as of this writing.
And how this blogger knows this, is by a little back-door investigation. I went to BurgerKing’s YouTube account, which has a link to it’s Twitter account, and followed the link. Over at Burger King’s YouTube account, it reads “@BK” but when you click the link and are taken to the Burger King Twitter account, that reads @BurgerKing and has the McD’s logo.
And this was the hacker’s first tweet:
We just got sold to McDonalds! Look for McDonalds in a hood near you @dfnctsc
— McDonalds (@BurgerKing) February 18, 2013
Since then, the hackers have been going to town with all sorts of ridiculous Twitter Tweets. Here’s a sample:
That sort of childishness went on for an hour before Twitter engineers got a hold of the situation and suspended the now defaced Twitter account. But that didn’t come before the words “Burger King’s Twitter Account Hacked” reached Twitter Top Trend status.
Hackers Actually Followed BK Policy
As it happens, the hackers actually followed Burger King’s Social Media Policy, albeit unknowingly. According to the Dartmouth Center For Digital Strategies introduction to its paper “Social Media and The Burger King Brand,” the burger giant…
“created Burger King-related content intended to entertain consumers, give the brand social currency, and create a sense of mystery.”
Well, the hackers’ certainly did that.
Burger King’s Lesson: Simple Passwords Are Bad
Someone forgot to tell the BK bosses that simple passwords are bad. Whoever allowed the password “Whopper 123” should be terminated. I hate to cost someone their job, but that’s a major error that was the seed of an embarrassing episode for Burger King. The crap is going to fall up to whoever the Chief Marketing OFficer is, and in this case, it’s Flavia Faugeres.
Burger King’s CMO Was The Result Of A Shakeup
The responsibility for the Twitter account hack falls to Burger King’s CMO Flavia Faugeres. Interestingly, Ms Faugeres was brought on after a massive shakeup and realignment of marketing staff at Burger King in 2011 and given the title Exec VP-Global Chief Marketing Officer. In June of last year, AdAge picked the former corporate marketing consultant because she had served in such a role for the company; she replaced Natalia Franco, who departed February 2011.
Burger King’s Hacked Account Suspended
As of this writing, Twitter has caught the account and suspended it, but this isn’t the last of the issue by any means.