Twitter Hacked: What a Black Eye (If you have a Twitter account - read this.)

Mashable ^ | December 18, 2009 | by Ben Parr

[malkee]

Update added by Admin Moderator

Update: An update from the Twitter status blog:

"Twitter's DNS records were temporarily compromised but have now been fixed. We are looking into the underlying cause and will update with more information soon."

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We’re still in shock over what has just transpired. Twitter was just hacked. A group claiming to be the “Iranian Cyber Army” broke through Twitter’s defense, took over Twitter, and stuck its own text, logos, and images on the site.

Here’s what we want to know: How the hell could this have happened?

Twitter’s security resume was badly damaged in July when hackers stole secret company documents depicting its operations. Yet even that didn’t take down the website. It’s also had its share of security exploits and fail whales.

Yet nothing compares to this. Nothing compares to what has happened tonight. Twitter was summarily hacked, taken over, and then taken down. Its security protocols were clearly ineffective.

This is unacceptable for one of the world’s top 20 most visited websites. This is unacceptable for a website attempting to compete with Facebook and establish itself as a world player. This is a black eye of epic proportions.

This incident cannot be taken lightly by Twitter or its users. A full explanation is needed and people need to be held accountable. Who knows if the hackers got our passwords and personal information? In fact, you should be changing your passwords now just in case.

We’ve reached out to not only Twitter, but to the hackers themselves for comment.

[malkee]

Just as a security check. Change your passwords!

[period end of story]

Twits.

[Gondring]

ping

[LibertyRocks]

Excellent idea re: the password! Thanks for the tip. I had heard it was down, but didn’t know it had been hacked...

Tin foil on...

The only thing I fear in this is that Obama will use this as an excuse to more closely monitor the internet or something... I wonder if it REALLY was the Iranians, or just someone claiming to be them, ya know? As Rahm always says, “Never waste a crisis”!

OK, tin foil off now! LOL

[CaptSkip]

Twitter...why?

[malkee]

Some people are speculating it might have something to do with the Iranian students twittering last summer during the crackdown.

[CaptSkip]

Oh yeah! That pi$$ed-off the Mullahs big-time when they wanted to clamp down all info.

[Soul Seeker]

Don’t see why I should change my password. I use the account more to follow certain people then communicate. If somone wants to hack an almost unused account be my guest. I have no sensitive information stored.

[malkee]

I just don’t want them to have access to my email account, which is also registered. Some people use the same, or nearly the same passwords for both.

[Ken H]

If somone wants to hack an almost unused account be my guest. I have no sensitive information stored.

Wouldn't a hacker have the ability to use the account for his own purposes, but under your name? That would be my greatest concern.

[Brytani]

More info



Dec. 18: A screenshot of Twitter.com shows the site defaced by a group calling itself the 'Iranian Cyber Army.'

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, was hacked early Friday morning by a group calling itself the "Iranian Cyber Army."

Users hoping to find their latest tweets were instead greeted by a black screen with a green flag.

Above the flag, in Arabic, read: "Hezbollah is victorious."

On the flag, in red Arabic writing: "Yassin" (an Arabic name written in bold) then in smaller Arabic print "the feast of peace."

Below the flag was more written in Farsi.

In English, the hackers wrote: "This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army. U.S.A think they controlling [sic] and managing internet by their access, but they don't, we control and manage internet by our power so do not try to stimulation (sic) Iranian People To..... Now Which Country is embargo list? Iran? Usa? We push them in embargo list ; ) Take care."

[dannyboy72a]

Probably has more to do with Obama about to bring back a big fat ZERO from Copenhagen and needs something else on the frontpage. What better than an “attack” from Iran. The media will be all over this 24-7 wall to wall. “The War of the Web”, “Iran Bytes Back”, “Is The Internet Really Safe”. I can see it now. A crisis only Obama can handle.

So the leftist, who are quickly becoming the cheering fans in the studio audience of “The Running Man”, will not focus on the utter destruction of Global Warming (and Al Gore’s portfolio) in Copenhagen.

Sidenote: Gore said he had “fresh” research that the ice would melt in 5 to 7 years... the guy he quoted said he never said that or has any idea of what Gore was talking about. What a moron. Maybe the temperature at his house is a million degrees and his brain fried. I can’t believe his kids don’t tell him “Dad. You’re a moron. Shut Up.”

[Hardastarboard]

Right up until they use your account to make death threats against prominent public officials.

[Condor51]

password changed.
thanks for the info.

[malkee]

They are also recommending you change your passwords for the email account attached to your twitter account.

[ShadowAce]

[AppyPappy]

I’m not sure what a compromised DNS server would have to do with passwords.

[Condor51]

*** They are also recommending you change your passwords for the email account attached to your twitter account. ***

Yep, I did that.

[justlurking]

The DNS entry for twitter's website was changed.

That allowed the attackers to point it to another website with a protest message.

[dsutah]

What do you do if you’ve registered recently, but haven’t used the account yet? How do you change the password if you need to?