Twitter Hacked, 250,000 User Accounts Potentially Compromised

Twitter Hacked, 250,000 User Accounts Potentially Compromised

allthingsd.com

Twitter disclosed on Friday evening that its systems had been attacked in the past week by an unidentified group of hackers. As a result of the the attack, the hackers may have had access to the usernames, email addresses and other sensitive information of nearly a quarter of a million twitter users.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
blog.twitter.com
theverge.com

Stories are hitting the wire in regards to an attack on Twitter. As of yet it doesn't appear anyone has claimed responsibility.

Here's an excerpt from the blog post earlier today:

As you may have read, there’s been a recent uptick in large-scale security attacks aimed at U.S. technology and media companies. Within the last two weeks, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have chronicled breaches of their systems, and Apple and Mozilla have turned off Java by default in their browsers.

This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users.

As a precautionary security measure, we have reset passwords and revoked session tokens for these accounts. If your account was one of them, you will have recently received (or will shortly) an email from us at the address associated with your Twitter account notifying you that you will need to create a new password. Your old password will not work when you try to log in to Twitter.

I don't have a Twitter account, but if you do, you may want to check it is not one that was affected, or look to see if you've received an email yet.

The blog post mentions the NYT and WSJ attacks and that Java has been turned off by default in Apple and Mozilla browsers.

They then echo the DHS warning later in the blog post...

We also echo the advisory from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and security experts to encourage users to disable Java on their computers in their browsers. For instructions on how to disable Java, read this recent Slate article.

So is this attack a result of turning Java off or did the WSJ and NYT not heed the warning and turn Java off and as a result they were hacked?

I find the mention of the Java thingy a bit peculiar and almost a cop out, at least on the surface.

allthingsd.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

No twitter.. No facebook.... no google plus.... I'm covered.

reply to post by 11235813213455


Likewise

On that note, and to anyone that does have a Twitter account, what type of information could potentially be compromised if one's account was to be accessed illegally?

Here is what the New York Times Blog is saying...

“This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident,” Bob Lord, Twitter’s director of information security, said in a blog post. “The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked.”

bits.blogs.nytimes.com...

reply to post by MamaJ


What's curious to me, is these massive and sophisticated attacks occurred AFTER the DHS warning to disable Java.

Twitter doesn't use Java - don't think these are related in any way.

reply to post by kamebard


It's puzzling to me why they put a great deal of emphasis on it in their Blog post then.

Just want people to be scarred.

The more frightening they can make it sound the more scarring they can produce. Scar someone enough and they'll be all the more willing to hand over freedoms to get rid of their fears.

The internet is not scary. Technology is not scary. If people today are too ignorant or incapable of figuring out the basics of what they are using... I got some nice beach front property in Arizona along with some bridges in New York you can buy for pennies on the dollar!

Originally posted by 11235813213455
No twitter.. No facebook.... no google plus.... I'm covered.

Without Twitter, how ever will you know what your friends are eating for lunch?

I heard it on the internwebs so it must be true. That fancy wickypedier had something telling me I should go drink the koolaid and join the club. Everything else makes me a bad citizen~

Twits twitter. I have never so much as looked at the website. In fact, I tweedle over twitters now they are twaddling.

That sentence makes about as much sense as Twitter does. Who is so important that ANYONE gives a crap what they are doing especially if it only needs a 100 characters to say?

Read my lips Twits, I don't care what you had for lunch or where you are off to next. Ohhhhh I have 500 fans..... How insecure Twitter junkies must be.....

Wait, twitter was hacked?

Let me go tweet this!

reply to post by Mamatus


You just don't get it. Twitter is a necessity in this day and age. Pics of babies and rice cakes.

Only a fool would dismiss this.

as for the charac

Originally posted by UberL33t
reply to post by 11235813213455

 

Likewise

On that note, and to anyone that does have a Twitter account, what type of information could potentially be compromised if one's account was to be accessed illegally?

It depends a lot of people use real names like famous actors, comedians and the like use their real information. I on the other hand just use an alias I go by and has nothing more than that. So they wouldn't get much from me.

reply to post by MystiqueAgent


Thanks for the clarification and this is what I presumed so really no detrimental information is housed on Twitter, understanding that I am subjectively stating that of course.

reply to post by kamebard


Lol what?

Twitter.com makes heavy use of JavaScript

If you cannot enable it in your browser's preferences, you may have a better experience on our mobile site.

That is what you get while visiting twitter with noscript on.

Anyone who signs on to a service called TWITTER, needs to be hacked. What is the world coming to?

Originally posted by adjensen

Originally posted by 11235813213455
No twitter.. No facebook.... no google plus.... I'm covered.

Without Twitter, how ever will you know what your friends are eating for lunch?

F'n people these days.... When I go there will be an email account and an ATS accout. Other than that I hope to have the footprint of an 80's school janitor..

Originally posted by MamaJ
Here is what the New York Times Blog is saying...

“This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident,”

They would say that wouldn't they? Bit embarassing to tell the world they were hacked by amateurs.

Twits.