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Britney and Barack Hacked on Twitter
Britney Spears, Barack Obama and Stephen Fry have been left red-faced after their Twitter accounts were hacked into and fake messages posted under their names.
Users of the online Blogging service can write messages or 'tweets' of up to 140 words on to their page to update friends, workmates or fans. These can be sent from a computer or using a mobile.
The hacker posted a message under Mr Obama's name asking, "What is your opinion on Barack Obama? Take the survey and possibly win $500 in free gas".
Britney’s official Twitter account sent out an explicit message to her fans.
Twitter said, “We discovered 33 accounts had been ‘hacked’ including prominent Twitter-ers like Barack Obama.
“These accounts were compromised by an individual who hacked into some of the tools our support team uses to help people do things. We immediately locked down the account and investigated the issue.”
In what seems to be a separate problem many Twitter-ers recently received messages apparently from friends inviting them to click on new websites.
However, the links connected to a fake login page which stole any account details and passwords.
Internet security firm Sophos said it was still unclear if the person who broke into the celebrities’ accounts was an external hacker, or someone inside the Twitter organisation.
“Twitter seem convinced that it was an individual rather than a gang of criminals, so it may be that they have identified the person responsible.”
It’s thought Twitter currently has around 3 million account holders.
Social Media news posted by Dan Brown on 06 January 2009
