Twitter a target for Cyber criminals

twitter hacker.JPGAll we want to do is tweet about our day and spread a bit of cheer throughout the Twittersphere and a bunch of hackers have to go and ruin the party.

And if celebrities are getting their Twitter accounts hacked into, it’s possible your account isn’t safe either (our social status is so below them). A-listers have been getting their accounts infiltrated by hackers displaying an assortment of messages from funny haha to obscene to spam crazy. It all began when Fox news posted a message about one of their anchors – ‘Bill O Riley is gay’. CNN’s Rick Sanchez was also hit with the potentially career destroying tweet – ‘I am high on crack right now might not be coming into work today’ (which he wouldn’t tweet about even if he was a user of the crack pipe). Even Stephen Fry fell victim to the scam – ‘Lawks. Hope I haven’t been phished for all my details. Clicked on scam URL last night before I knew what t it was. Eeek. X’.

Check out Britney’s fake forthright tweet after the jump…

britney-hacked-thumb-400x250.jpg

Don’t be conned into handing over your login details. On hand to help is a Symantec security expert Marian Merritt, who offers the following advice to avoid getting scammed:

  • Change your Twitter account password immediately if you suspect you’ve been victimised.
  • Contact the Twitter support team for assistance.
  • Check out Twitters comprehensive blog entry about the issue.

Only time will tell what’ll happen to the perp, but seeing as their victim list involves many high-profile people from celebsville, they’ll probably get more than a slap on the wrist when they’re caught.

[via Tech Digest]

Like this? Read this: Britney wants you to tweet her baby one more time

Lucy Hedges