The Syrian Electronic Army’s forecast for the @BBCweather Twitter account is a little, erm, political in nature.
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.Bad news guys: Twitter suffered a hacking incident — and a lot of people were affected. At least 250,000.
cnbc:
Twitter Hacked? Company Resets Some Passwords
Some Twitter users received emails Thursday from the social media company stating that their account may have been compromised after a potential security breach.
“Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter. We’ve reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account,” the email stated.Twitter also stated in the email that users should not reuse their old password and should create a new password that included a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.
The company also recommended that users check their browser’s address bar when visiting the Twitter website to make sure the URL is indeed Twitter’s legitimate site.
“Phishing sites often look just like Twitter, so check the URL before entering your login information!” the company said in the email.
Twitter did not immediately respond for comment.
Read the full email here.
Photo: Twitter
One of the sites apparently affected? TechCrunch.
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Twitter account hacked: Appears to be someone upset with his politics, particularly in regards to SOPA and PIPA. Also, unlike Grassley, the hacker can write in full sentences. Screenshots for posterity.
HuffPo Twitter hacked, offensive messages posted: Leaving the screenshots unedited for posterity. Thanks to GayWrites for the tip.
Classy, just classy. Screwing with people in this fashion is just unacceptable.
FoxNews.com alerted the U.S. Secret Service, which is declining public comment. Jeff Misenti, vice president and general manager of Fox News Digital, said FoxNews.com is working with Twitter to address the situation as quickly as possible.
“We will be requesting a detailed investigation from Twitter about how this occurred, and measures to prevent future unauthorized access into FoxNews.com accounts,” Misenti said.
It took Fox News a solid eight hours to delete those tweets. Though, mind you, it was on the Fourth of July.
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