McDonald's: The Latest Victim of Hacking

Regardless of its global presence and vast amount of resources, even the largest fast food chain in the world cannot escape the threat of hacking. Several days ago, the corporate Twitter account of McDonald's was compromised, with the responsible party posting the following tweet that attacked Donald Trump.

McDonald's quickly moved to delete the tweet and post a response explaining the situation. Despite these actions, the company received (and in some cases is still receiving) backlash from Trump supporters, many of whom want to #BoycottMcDonalds. Most people seem to understand that the tweet was the result of hacking, but it appears that some people still are not getting the message.

This situation perfectly illustrates the danger that hacking presents and how it can quickly lead to a public relations nightmare for any business with social media presence. Even though McDonald's took immediate action to counter the hack by informing its followers as to what happened, some people failed to see beyond the hacked tweet to fully understand the situation. No matter how much work is put in to fix an incident like this, there is no way to completely put down the backlash that follows, regardless of if it is justified or not. It is interesting to note that the hacked account was specifically McDonald's corporate account, which has far less reach than the company's primary account, meaning that the damage could have been much worse had it happened to that account instead. A situation like this should serve as a cautionary tale to all businesses, showing just how important it is to maintain constant vigilance with regards to their social media pages.