Seattle writer — and viral baking sensation — Geraldine DeRuiter is back on Twitter after having her account taken over, wiped clean and locked by a hacker.
DeRuiter is the voice behind The Everywhereist blog and author of the book “All Over the Place.” She is also the wife of Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz, the Seattle-based maker of marketing software tools.
On Jan. 10, DeRuiter wrote a post in the wake of yet another apology from a well-known man accused of sexual misconduct. But the post took off because DeRuiter chose to make pizza cinnamon rolls from a recipe inexplicably attached to chef Mario Batali’s apology letter. Sprinkled among the instructions about the dough and the amount of icing, DeRuiter offered her biting commentary on misogyny and more.
Four days later, she discovered on Sunday morning that her Twitter account had been hacked.
“I don’t know if this was directly related to the Batali cinnamon roll thing … but the timing feels pretty convenient,” DeRuiter told GeekWire via email.
The Stranger, which reported the news on Monday, said that DeRuiter’s profile photo, cover image and name had been changed.
“The hacker (who swore retaliation and has since been kicked off of Twitter) took control of my account sometime yesterday morning,” DeRuiter said Monday night. “They tweeted a few things — including a proud proclamation of the hack that included a racial slur — and then proceeded to wipe the account — deleting all of my favorites, all of my tweets, everyone who I followed — everything.”
DeRuiter told The Stranger that Fishkin believed she had been hacked by a bot and that it was related to the Batali piece.
She finally regained control of her account on Monday and told GeekWire that Twitter was in the process of restoring everything. On Tuesday she said she still didn’t have her favorites back, but her friend Marc created a script for her that re-followed all of the people she had been following. She also said her followers appear to be back, as do all of her tweets.
Christ. Who knew that misogynists that would get so worked up over fucking cinnamon rolls?
Thank you to everyone who helped me get this account back.
And in case you need proof it's me: pic.twitter.com/23Sua7IB4c
— Geraldine (@everywhereist) January 15, 2018
To be fair, @everywhereist, those fucking cinnamon rolls were just awful and you need to blame yourself. https://t.co/j9wIMjnoen
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) January 16, 2018
Our friend and brilliant writer @everywhereist has had a rough day with hackers taking over her account, which sucks on many levels. But she's got it back, and you should totally buy a copy of her new book because she's one of the funniest folks on here: https://t.co/8ghAIrI6j5
— Charlotte Clymer?️? (@cmclymer) January 16, 2018
“At this point, I’m just tired and little paranoid about the whole thing,” DeRuiter said. “My DMs from the attackers suggest that they were going to sell the account — which makes me think that it may not have been related to the post I wrote, and that the whole thing is just a coincidence, but then one of them tweeted (after I got my account back) that I was going to ‘see all of this again real soon’ — which suggests it was a targeted attack.”
But at least she found some comfort again in baking.
“I already made a cobbler last night,” DeRuiter said. “It was fantastic. Having it for breakfast today.”