Been Phished by Twitter?
Well, all the talk on Twitter the last couple of days has been this rash of "phishing" (basically stealing or tricking you into giving secure information) by some hackers of Twitter accounts.
It goes like this: you get a direct message from someone telling you to check out a funny blog post or some other innocuous message with a link. If you click on the link, it takes you to a site that looks just like, but isn't, Twitter or Facebook and asks you to enter your username and password. Zing, they've got you! Now they know your username and password (which may be ones you use on other sites across the web -- scary!) and can log into your Twitter account and spam everyone else.
If it happened to you, don't feel bad. Fox News got hit, Britney Spears, CNN, the Huffington Post and more and let's just say the hackers posted some shocking and yes I have to admit, funny, things... See here. Twitter reset the passwords when it noticed an account got hit, so that may have locked you out. Go to Twitter's reset password page to get back in.
The good news is that reports say it is not currently causing any damage, but just using this technique to spread itself far and wide. I'm sure whoever did this is just looking for an ego boost that they were able to get past Facebook and Twitter security.
What can you do to prevent this in the future?
1) Always look at the URL you are directed to.
2) If it's anything other than exactly what you know it to be, don't do ANYTHING.
3) Never enter your username or password into a site you don't know.
4) If you get friendly messages from people you don't know, directing you somewhere, be VERY cautious.
Did you get phished? Tell us what happened!
It goes like this: you get a direct message from someone telling you to check out a funny blog post or some other innocuous message with a link. If you click on the link, it takes you to a site that looks just like, but isn't, Twitter or Facebook and asks you to enter your username and password. Zing, they've got you! Now they know your username and password (which may be ones you use on other sites across the web -- scary!) and can log into your Twitter account and spam everyone else.
If it happened to you, don't feel bad. Fox News got hit, Britney Spears, CNN, the Huffington Post and more and let's just say the hackers posted some shocking and yes I have to admit, funny, things... See here. Twitter reset the passwords when it noticed an account got hit, so that may have locked you out. Go to Twitter's reset password page to get back in.
The good news is that reports say it is not currently causing any damage, but just using this technique to spread itself far and wide. I'm sure whoever did this is just looking for an ego boost that they were able to get past Facebook and Twitter security.
What can you do to prevent this in the future?
1) Always look at the URL you are directed to.
2) If it's anything other than exactly what you know it to be, don't do ANYTHING.
3) Never enter your username or password into a site you don't know.
4) If you get friendly messages from people you don't know, directing you somewhere, be VERY cautious.
Did you get phished? Tell us what happened!
Comment
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Comment by Sharon Dove Chocolatier on January 19, 2009 at 2:29pm -
I didnt get it but got several DM from several of ones who did and it was saying click on funny video about you..
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Comment by LemonJelloYum on January 14, 2009 at 1:24am -
Thanks for sharing this, it was unknown to me.
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Comment by Alice Griffin on January 9, 2009 at 1:37pm -
This happened to me too. I think you just have to be alert - any email that comes through to me from someone I don't know, especially with a link or an attachment - I tend to go with my gut and that usually means I delete it to be safe. Enjoyed your post Lyn!
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Comment by Lyn Mettler on January 8, 2009 at 7:12pm -
That is VERY interesting about the hacking of the high profile accounts. Thanks for sharing. Clearly there is something Twitter could have done to prevent that (though it did give a few of us a couple laughs :)) by improving the security for access to its administrative accounts.
I too had some issues on Facebook with friends' accounts getting hacked into and bogus messages with links posted on my wall etc but I did not click to find out what happened.
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Comment by InstantAmber on January 8, 2009 at 2:01pm -
Sorry. That was unrelated to the phishing scam. The weak password led to the hacking of Obama, Brittney, etc.
Weak Password Brings 'Happiness' to Twitter Hacker
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Comment by InstantAmber on January 8, 2009 at 1:58pm
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Twitter was compromised also because one of there team members used a password found in the dictionary. It was "happiness" ironically.
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Comment by The Frugal Free Gal on January 8, 2009 at 10:08am -
thanks for sharing...it almost happened to me on facebook! http://momsjustwannahavefun.blogspot.com
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Comment by Lea Curtes-Swenson on January 8, 2009 at 10:03am -
Lyn, great reporting on this. I have to admit, the jerk did make me laugh. Poor Rick Sanchez! But I agree -- if only all the negative energy people put into this stuff were directed toward something productive. Sheesh. (Jamie, the 10,000 emails... how awful. How did you deal with that?)
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Comment by Lyn Mettler on January 8, 2009 at 7:52am
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I agree. And I'm not sure what else Twitter could have done in this situation to stop the phishers. They did leave it on their homepage as a warning while it was going on. But there really wasn't anything they could do to stop people from clicking on that link other than telling them not too.
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Comment by Beth Ann Bentley on January 8, 2009 at 7:24am -
I think there is a fear of being too exposed, Twitter does a good job of making the user experience safe.
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