Last weekend there was a phishing attack on several Twitter accounts, with details provided on Twitter’s blog. Then on Monday of this week, 33 accounts were hacked, which was apparently not related to the phishing attempt from the weekend.
Then over the course of this week the ‘whale fail’ has been spotted much more frequently than in recent months and delivery issues have been growing over the past two days particularly. At the time of this writing, delivery appears to have returned somewhat to normal, and the reason for the delays was cited on the getsatisfaction.com site as ‘they are integrating a new database’. Hopefully this integration is part of beefed up security measures to ensure our Twitter accounts are safe.
In addition to all the security issues and drama this week, yesterday many (including myself) began noticing a pop-up window asking for confirmation of our Twitter username and password. I chose to cancel the request and not confirm.
In light of all the above: I strongly suggest that if you have not already done so, you go right now to the Twitter web site and and change your password. I would even go so far as to suggest you clear your private data from your browser cache (in Flock or FireFox > Tools > Clear Private Data > choose your options and click the button) as well as making sure your anti-virus defnitions are up-to-date; make sure you have malware and spyware preventation on your computer, in addition to running a personal firewall. Then run a full scan on your computer to detect any vulnerabilities.
It’s one thing for companies and services to make sure things are secure on their end, but if we are leaving our systems vulnerable to attack and basically handing our passwords over to the hackers – then we have to take responsibility for our part in all this too. We need to surf safe and smart.
Security Product Recommendations
Below are some products I would recommend. You don’t need all of these; just a good anti-viral protection and at least malware and spyware protection too. Even if one of the antiviral programs offers the all inclusive package, as a backup, I would run a secondary program just for malware or spyware; or run an online scan at Trend Micro periodically to double-check your system.
These are all free versions, most but do have upgrade/premium versions available with enhanced features. The free versions will provide you with enough coverage to protect you, so please don’t let lack of money be an excuse.
Avast free antivirus: Free antivirus, also detects and removes all forms of malware, including spyware, rootkits and trojans.
AVG Free Anti-Virus: Free virus and spyware protection.
Trend Micro HouseCall Free Online Virus Scan: Free. Scans for virus, spyware and malware infections.
Spyware Doctor: Free version available. Blocks spyware & adware.
Ad-Aware: Free protection again spyware, Trojans, viruses, worms, password stealers, bots, and keyloggers
