The internet’s all abuzz at the latest Twitter security breach. Apparently though the security breach does not affect the actual Twitter accounts of Twitter users but instead affects other online accounts (Paypal, Gmail, Amazon, etc.) of Twitter employees. According to Ev William’s email to Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch the hacker, who’s using the alias Hacker Croll, “most of the sensitive information” that the hacker got was personal information such as credit card information. Ev says that to them it is a lesson learned, “It was a good lesson for us that we are being targeted because we work for Twitter. We have taken extra steps to increase our security, but we know we can never be entirely comfortable with what we share via email.” I guess that goes for us too.
Despite the problems this attack created for Twitter employees Twitter users need not be concerned about the current security of their Twitter accounts. As Hacker Croll said to French blogger Manuel Borne (he was the first who received the hacked files), “J’espere que mon intervention leur fera prendre conscience que nul n’est a l’abri sur le net,” which according to Rory Cellan-Jones of BBC roughly translates to the hacker saying that “he hopes his “intervention” will make Twitter wake up to the fact that nothing is secure on the net.” In other words do not be concerned about your Twitter account ONLY but ALL your accounts on the internet. So make sure that even when using “secure” sites keep sensitive information out of the net if possible because even when using cloud-based emails, if your password gets in the hands of the wrong person, you will still get in trouble.
