Jeep’s Twitter Account Hacked, Says Cadillac Bought It

If you happen to follow Jeep on Twitter, you may have seen that the storied SUV maker announced on Tuesday that it was bought by Cadillac.

“The official Twitter handle for the Jeep — Just Empty Every Pocket, Sold To Cadillac”, read Jeep’s hacked Twitter profile description yesterday.

Well, not Cadillac, nor General Motors, bought Jeep. Instead, the brand’s Twitter account was commandeered by hackers, resulting in a series of rather comical events. The fake purchase announcement was accompanied by the Cadillac logo replacing that of Jeep in the account profile, and a set of (somewhat vulgar) tweets followed.

One of these stated that rapper 50 Cent would never ride in a Jeep, and another accused the brand’s executives of doing drugs. Putting the icing on the cake is the hacker’s choice to post a photo of the Cadillac ATS, complete with the 2013 North American of the Year accolade.

We’re not sure of the upside to doing something like this in the first place, but GM felt compelled to set the record straight by denying any affiliation with the attack. Cadillac spokeswoman Jordana Strosberg tweeted:  “Hi Twitterverse! @Cadillac is not involved with the @Jeep hack”.

From the looks of a Twitter account associated with the hackers’ collective Anonymous, the group accepted responsibility for the attack. However, there isn’t a definitive way to verify this due to the fact that the group has no official leader or spokesperson.

And while Twitter doesn’t comment on individual accounts, it hinted that Jeep’s troubles were caused by a weak password on Jeep’s Twitter account.

“We’d advise users read our advice on keeping accounts secure, including the use of a strong password that contains at least 10 characters and includes upper and lower case characters, numbers, and symbols,” said Twitter spokesman Jim Prosser to The Detroit News. Luckily, the firm utilized by Jeep to manage its social media channels was able to regain control of the account about an hour after the hack took place, as the brand’s fans and followers informed Jeep of the obviously non-kosher activity.

The fiasco seems to be linked to a similarly-ironic scheme that took place a day before, wherein Burger King’s Twitter avatar was replaced by that of fast-food rival McDonald’s.

The GM Authority Take

Oh the irony. For starters, the hackers picked Cadillac (not GM) to fictitiously buy Jeep… even though Cadillac can’t buy anything, for it is just a brand within General Motors. This leads us to believe that the fine hackers responsible for this bout of comedic relief should read GM Authority more often.

That said, we can live without all the drug-related remarks as it relates to Chrysler execs, but have to wonder if 50 Cent would drive a Cadillac. Oh wait, he already does. It’s a second-gen Escalade with Lambo doors, at the 1:50 mark (NSFW):