05 January 2009, 18:53

Major security problem for Twitter

Twitter, the microblogging site has admitted to a major breach in its security. According to Twitter, thirty three high profile accounts were compromised. The accounts, belonging users such as Fox News, Britney Spears and Barack Obama, were taken over via a vulnerability in Twitter's support tools. In the announcement, Twitter said "These accounts appear to have been compromised by an individual who hacked into some of the tools our support team uses to help people do things like edit the email address associated with their Twitter account when they can't remember or get stuck."

Twitter says that they closed down the support tools and will keep them off line until the issue is fixed. The problem is unrelated to the wave of phishing attacks which occurred over the weekend. Although Twitter accounts are free and have no credit card or other payment details associated with them, many companies use the service as another way to stay in touch with customers or provide them with information. Vandalism of these accounts could compromise their reputation.

(djwm)

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