Sues Twitter over hacked account — Michael Berkens

Popular domain name blogger still doesn’t have control of his account five days following hacking.

Michael Berkens and his firm Worldwide Media, Inc. have sued Twitter (pdf) and the unknown person who has control over his @thedomains handle.

On December 22 someone gained access to the @thedomains account and started tweeting. Some of the tweets taunted followers and Berkens regarding the account being hacked.

Despite numerous notes to Twitter, Berkens still does not have control of the account.

In the lawsuit, Berkens states that he and his firm have paid twitter “substantial amounts of money to use and promote the Account, and otherwise have devoted extensive resources and time to using and promoting the Account.”

Whoever hacked the account seems to have a good read on Berkens, as many of the retweets and comments allude to Berkens’ interests.

I suspect the primary goal of the lawsuit is to recover the account, but it also asks for damages and for Twitter to remind its users regarding available security tools like two-factor authentication, which was only made available this year.

Speaking of which, go turn on two-factor authentication for your account.