As TechCrunch reported this morning, someone has been hacking into high-profile Twitter accounts and posting amusingly defamatory tweets. But here’s one they missed:
This tweet stayed up longer than the others. I learned about it just after noon today (hat tip: Brad Levinson) and finally was pulled shortly after I started writing this post. I’m of two minds on whether this is the same culprit: On one hand, the content of the tweet is much different — less mischievous, more promotional. On the other hand, that would be some coincidence, and Twitter’s recent phishing problems could be a bigger headache than its previous spamming problems.
The link behind the TinyURL is still available [Update: Apparently not anymore; if you really want to see it, just drop me a line], and it goes to a site owned by a company called Top Notch Media, Inc. that would very much like your e-mail address and some information about you while you’re at it. And hey, what do you know, it turns out Top Notch Media has been the subject of numerous complaints to Internet fraud watch sites. This is probably the last of it, although Exxon-Mobil may like to know that their logo is being used there, unless they already do, in which case somebody might want to alert Daily Kos.
Oh well, at least we know that Obama’s transition team is still aware that their Twitter account exists.
The Twitter accounts were hacked by a 18 yr old. See full story at Blog.Wired.com – http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/professed-twitt.html
Twitter were really slack with their security and slow response to a massive issue. This may well dent their trust ratings but probably won’t negatively affect it’s usage I drew a cartoon about it: http://www.jonin60seconds.com/blog/2009/1/8/how-twitter-responded-to-the-celebrity-hacks.html
If the morons at Top Notch Media, Inc. and other spammers and hackers would just take all that time and energy they spend on crap like this and put it in something legit they would do much better. Plus in the end they would not have to spend everything they made on fines and legal fee’s.
Seems if you are going to hack you wouldn’t leave your calling card?
If they’re that smart they could be making money online legitimately instead of hacking.