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Was Matt Walsh hacked? Twitter puts forth SIM card hijack theory
A string of alarming posts from Matt Walsh’s Twitter account has some convinced he was hacked.
On Tuesday, April 18, posts coming from Matt Walsh’s Twitter account threw some of his 1.7 million followers for a loop. Tweets from the right-wing political commentator and author covered everything from allegations levied against Andrew Tate to public jabs at Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro.
Considering that Walsh has worked with the likes of Rogan and Shapiro over the years, the posts came as quite the surprise. Let’s take a look at what happened and how Walsh has been supported following the hack.
What happened to Matt Walsh’s Twitter?
Tuesday evening saw an alarming sequence of tweets coming from Matt Walsh‘s official account. With a following on the social media platform in the millions, this inevitably raised alarm bells. Walsh’s Twitter image and banner were also changed.
Whoever was behind the posts addressed the thinking that Walsh’s Twitter post had been hacked. They shared a screenshot of an iPhone which showed a string of texts arriving between 7:22pm and 8:00pm local time. Three of the four texts in the image are two-step verification messages from Twitter, Google, and Microsoft. The fourth text, arriving at 8pm, was from an unsaved number which wrote to Walsh: “Your Twitter has been hacked.”
The posts have since been deleted, but the Twitter image and banner remain on Matt Walsh’s official account.
Matt Walsh assumed to be hacked in SIM takeover
Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh’s friend, confirmed that Walsh’s account was indeed hacked. There are reports that the account was accessed through a SIM hijack. Walsh has yet to explain what led to the hack, but there are a number of clues that point to the SIM takeover being the cause.
Screenshot of text messages sent to Matt Walsh show that someone was logging into a variety of internet accounts. The text message received from an unsaved number has also been reported to belong to a Daily Wire employee, where Walsh is also a columnist. If someone were to hijack Walsh’s mobile phone sim, they would be able to access all of this data streaming into their phone. This would be why the number texting Matt Walsh would have no contact associated.
This incident arrives just over a week after the FBI issued a warning about juice jacking. This is a growing technology harnessed by hackers to either instal malware on your device or gain access through screen mirroring.
Matt has stepped up security measures
As Matt Walsh becomes a more prominent and vocal figure in right-wing political commentary circles, he has received increased backlash, which led him to employ security to protect himself and his family.
“Over the past few months, my friend Matt Walsh has been threatened to the extent that he’s had to have full-time security at his home to protect his family,” Ben Shapiro tweeted on Tuesday night. “Now he’s been hacked. The tolerant and diverse and kind crowd are celebrating, of course,” Shapiro added, before attaching some screenshots of Twitter users offering their two cents on the account hack.
