Burger King's Twitter account hacked Burger King's Twitter account has been suspended after it was hacked on Monday in a sign of the problems companies can run into with social media. The hackers spent the morning tweeting obscenities and drug references and changed the company's logo to that of McDonald's, claiming Burger King had been sold to its fast-food rival. The company has gained roughly 30,000 followers since the first tweet this morning. The cyber attack highlights not only the dangers corporations face when using social media to reach out to consumers, but also the vulnerabilities of major sites like Twitter and Facebook. The hack comes two weeks after Twitter warned 250,000 users that their accounts may have been compromised by what it called an "extremely sophisticated" attack. The Burger King incident is not believed to be related to that earlier break-in. Twitter said the company did not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons. On Friday, Facebook said that it too had been targeted by hackers, showing that social networks and the personal information they contain are becoming a growing target for cyber criminals. A spokesman for Burger King said the company had worked with Twitter to suspend the account and hopes to get it back up as soon as possible. He said the company will post an apology on its Facebook page saying that "this is not consistent with our standards and values." McDonald's, for its part, tweeted its condolences: "We empathize with our @BurgerKing counterparts. Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking. Meanwhile, a social media manager for Wendy's, Amy Rose Brown, tweeted while the account was still compromised, "My real life nightmare is playing out over on @BurgerKing." George Kurtz, president of Crowdstrike, a San Francisco-based cyber security firm, said the weak link in such attacks is often a common or shared password. "A social media account for a company where multiple people need access [especially tend to use] shared passwords," he said. One way companies can avoid Burger King's situation is to ensure that such passwords are complex and shared with as few people as possible, Mr Kurtz said. Another is to use the two-factor authentication services offered by some sites which only allow access after the password has been entered along with a numerical code sent to the user's mobile phone. Earlier this month, Twitter posted a job opening whose possible duties included the design of multi-factor authentication, which both Facebook and Google's Gmail service already offer. The hackers" references to "OpMadCow" when they had control of Burger King's Twitter account may be a reference to the European horsemeat scandal, where the fast-food chain is one of many retailers to discover that its suppliers processed contaminated meat. The attack came three days after Burger King Worldwide, based in Miami, reported a near doubling of fourth-quarter earnings.