John McAfee
John McAfee, the founder of the eponymous anti-virus company, arrives at the China Internet Security Conference in Beijing - File photo Fred Dufour/ AFP

John McAfee confirmed that his Twitter account was hijacked by hackers. McAfee also claimed that his mobile phone may have been compromised as well.

The founder of the anti-virus firm blamed the hack on cybercriminals with a grudge, who he believes may have lost money and held him responsible for their misfortunes.

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"Though I am a security expert, I have no control over Twitter's security. I have haters. I am a target. People make fake accounts, fake screenshots, fake claims. I am a target for hackers who lost money and blame me. Please take responsibility for yourselves. Adults only please," McAfee wrote in a post on Twitter on Wednesday (27 December).

McAfee reportedly blamed Twitter's two-step verification process for the hack. He told BBC that he had activated Twitter's two-step authentication but believes that hackers were able to somehow intercept the authentication code.

For the past few weeks, McAfee had taken to tweeting out daily recommendations about obscure cryptocurrencies that would be a good investment option. However, he recently said that he would cut back on the recommendations, adding that the next recommendation would be due on 1 January 2018.

However, a day after McAfee's announcement of scaling back, his account began firing off more cyrptocurrency picks. McAfee later deleted the tweets, which he claims were posted by unknown hacker(s).

McAfee also tweeted out a screenshot of a private conversation between one of his followers and what appears to be a fake Twitter account. "Yet one more fake Twitter account pretending to be me. There are dozens on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, etc. Please help out and report these accounts when you find them. They are fooling a few of my followers and causing confusion."

However, some reports have speculated about whether the recent hack could be a publicity stunt. McAfee is currently working to develop the world's first "hack-proof" smartphone.

This is not the first time that McAfee has been linked to a cybsersecurity gaffe. Graham Cluley reported that in 2012, while McAfee was on the run from authorities in Belize, a photo of him emerged that contained meta-data, which revealed the GPS latitude and longitude co-ordinates of the location where McAfee was photographed.

Meanwhile, news of the hack was not really surprising to some security experts, a few of whom even mocked McAfee on Twitter.

Hacking Cybercrime