Hackers target Twitter

6 January 2009 | Posted by Annie Wakefield | Digital Marketing Manager | Social Media

It would seem that phishing spammers truly are taking over social networks. Many of our favourite networks have been targeted and it has become quite a problem. Facebook has seen a dramatic increase in spam over the last month or so and Twitter became the latest victim of these phishing attacks.

Monday morning it was discovered that 33 accounts, including Britney Spears, Stephen Fry, Rick Sanchez and Barack Obama, had been hacked by spammers. The culprit posted a message as Presedential elect, Barack Obama asking "What
is your opinion on Barack Obama? Take the survey and possibly win $500 in
free gas", while Britney Spears' fell victim to a rather explicit message by utilising the tools that Twitter's support team uses to help "Twitterers" edit and manage the email addresses associated with their accounts.

Twitter also released a statement saying that : "We considered this a very serious breach of security and immediately took the support tools offline." The tools will only be placed back online when the guys at Twitter believe that it is safe and secure.

As these phishing attacks increase we all need to be a little more cautious and aware of what exactly these messages do and what the people sending them out are trying to achieve, for more information visit the Symantec site.