Hackers Expose 55,000 Twitter Accounts

Sites include Twitter.com . Published on May 24th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

Twitter has proven yet again that despite all the millions at its disposal, it is perhaps still, the least secure social network.

This time hackers have snuck in and exposed 55,000 accounts and many of which include the usernames and passwords for many top celebrities. The listing of all 55,000 account login credentials were posted on text-sharing site Pastbin and according to one source, people have been busy viewing (and heaven knows what else) the 5 pages of content on Pastbin.

Twitter has since made a release in response to the hacking and users have been assured that if they are affected, things will be rectified with password resets and the like.

The larger question is whether Twitter is too vulnerable because of its API; after all, that is perhaps one of the easiest ways to get into Twitter since the social network relies heavily on developers to fuel its growth. But even so, Twitter can and should do better. These breaches are becoming so common, so prevalent that many are starting to identify Twitter as the hack-prone platform.

In the meantime, the word on the digital street is do what you can to protect yourself. Change your password regularly and by whatever you do, don’t go for the obvious. In 2012 people are still using the word ‘Password’ for their Twitter password. Can you believe it?

Let us know what you think about the latest Twitter breach using the comments below.