Hackers target Twitter, access about 250,000 user accounts

[Bosonic]

Last edited Sat Feb 2, 2013, 08:56 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: Reuters

Anonymous hackers attacked Twitter this week and may have gained access to passwords and other information for as many as 250,000 user accounts, the microblog revealed late on Friday.

Twitter said in a blog post that the passwords were encrypted and that it had already reset them as a "precautionary measure," and that it was in the process of notifying affected users.

The blog post noted recent revelations of large-scale cyber attacks against the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, but unlike the two news organizations, Twitter did not provide any detail on the origin or methodology of the attacks.

"This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident," Twitter said. "The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/02/net-us-twitter-hacked-idUSBRE91100I20130202

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Updated link... (original disappeared)

[steve2470]

1. mine was one of them, despite a very very strong password nt

[greiner3]

2. " http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/02/us-twitter-hacked-idUSBRE91100I20130202"

"Our apologies, the requested page was not found. Please double-check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble finding a page in Reuters, please choose from the options below:"

[Ian David]

3. Okay, now they're just being dicks. n/t

[loudsue]

5. These are prolly just hackers who hateful people are associating with the "Anonymous" that

has recently gained a reputation for being a service to humanity. Probably all hackers are anonymous, until they aren't. But the ANONYMOUS we have come to know and love is a different animal, IMHO. Twitter passwords might be valuable to hackers.

[Ian David]

7. I hope they didn't hack the passwords of their own Twitter followers. n/t

[Posteritatis]

9. Anonymous is hardly a coherent, monolithic entity. (nt)

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. I got a couple of emails this week saying someone had requested a password reset for my account

but the way they were worded, it seemed that it was just someone using the "I've forgotten my password" feature - which isn't 'hacking', to me. Now I don't know if Twitter meant someone had got further than that.

[L0oniX]

6. How many idiots use a twidiot l/p for their bank or cc l/p?

Yea I coined that one - "twidiot"

[Eljo_Don]

8. Internet security

I don't mind if my Email, twitter, or facebook are hacked. I know that everything I do through Internet can be seen by many parties. You want my accounts ID and passwords? Just contact me and I will give them to you. Why? Because I'm not stupid (enough) to put any sensitive information there. If I don't want any sensitive information to be known I use other means like regular mail (That way only government agencies will know).