Monday, May 17, 2010

While Twitter Was Hacked, Twitter Follower Stats Vanished

Twitter Hacked - Twitter Follower Stats Vanish During Bug Fix

Twitter hacked” was the headline Monday as users saw their Twitter follower stats fall to zero. In a microsecond, each and every Twitter user from Ashton Kutcher to Average Joe lost their Twitter follow stats. ”Twitter hacked” ended up being just a social media wildfire rumor. Twitter disabled Twitter's follow stats in order to fix a bug that was letting Twitter users force others into following them. This is just probably the most recent social media security issue. But when compared to Blippy exposing credit card numbers online and Facebook phishing scams, Twitter hacked could be worse.

In Twitter hacked scandal, Twitter follow bug exposed

Part and parcel of Twitter being hacked rumor was that Twitter users were led to believe that Twitter was hacked after a Turkish blog exposed the Twitter follow bug and offered instructions on how to exploit it. Caroline Mccarthy at CNET says that one more blog jumped on board the loan till payday of intel. Webrazzi forced the Twitter accounts of Twitter CEO Evan Williams and Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, to follow a dummy profile. The bug allowed any Twitter member to add any followers they like by tweeting “accept” followed by “@” and any registered Twitter user name.

Falling to zero is Twitter followers

After “Twitter hacked” headlines broke loose Monday, Twitter sent a notice on the company’s Twitter feed that everyone’s Twitter follower states were affected when the bug was being fixed. ”Follow count display is set to zero and follow/unfollow is temporarily offline while we fix a bug,” Twitter stated at 1:02 p.m. eastern time. MSNBC reported that the follower lists were restored by 2:15 p.m.

Twitter hacked following Facebook phishing

The Facebook phishing scam came directly before the Twitter hacked story. According to pehub.com, a Facebook event invitation was sent to some of the over 2,300 friends of Jim Breyer, who happens to be a venture capitalist who sits on Facebook’s board of directors. Breyer’s Facebook friends checking their E-mail early on Sunday morning saw a note asking them “Would you like a Facebook phone number?” Users who entered their passwords in response to the spoof message from Breyer in turn had the whole thing sent to their friends lists, too.

Twitter followers beware Blippy

Twitter being hacked and Facebook phishing has sparked a huge debate that has social media users wondering just how secure their personal info really is and what companies like Facebook and Twitter are really doing with it. One of the scariest social media security incidents adding to this debate is that of Blippy exposing credit card numbers online. Blippy has users use social networking to tell their friends all about what they buy online. Those concerned about financial security should know that somebody figured out how to find Blippy members' credit card numbers on Google. 127 results were found in a search that had full credit card numbers before Blippy fixed the problem.

Article Resources

Caroline Mccarthy at CNET

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20004563-36.html

MSNBC reported

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37066547/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

pehub.com

http://www.pehub.com/71201/facebook-loses-face-board-member's-account-is-breached/



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