Twitter Hacked: Never Gonna Give You Up

By

Twitter enthusiasts were in for a surprise today when they sat down for their early morning “tweet” and a cup of coffee. The short-messaging service was hacked as mysterious tweets of blocked-out text propagated themselves and caused pop-up windows to open unexpectedly. According to Mashable, the bug redirects users to third-party websites without their consent.

The hack had been particularly nefarious because the tweets activated without being clicked on. Web surfers needed only move their mouse cursors over them to become at risk. That’s because the pop-ups contained malicious code that could take control over poorly protected computers. In fact, Fox News reported that that some of the redirects sent users to explicit websites. A source told Fox News that "tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of messages" had been posted to Twitter as a result of the hack.

But not everyone was affected by the attack. While visitors to Twitter.com were impacted, third-party programs used to send and read tweets were left untouched.

According to Twitter's Trust and Safety team leader Del Harvey, the Twitter hack has been identified and is now fixed. “The XSS attack should now be fully patched and no longer exploitable," Harvey said from here Twitter account @delbius. “Thanks, those reporting it.”

This isn’t the first time Twitter has been hacked. In May, a Twitter security glitch allowed any Twitter user to force another to subscribe to their ‘tweets’ without the ‘follower’ giving permission. As a result, thousands of celebrities, including Justin Bieber, P. Diddy and Ashton Kutcher, found themselves following complete strangers. Tweeted reality TV star Kim Kardashian: “Someone hacked my account and direct messaged me! They have added over 200 new people! Ughhhh.”

As for a culprit, the Toronto Sun is reporting that today’s malicious attack originated from Twitter user @Matsta, and that the website for Matsta.org directs users to a Rick Astley music video. Misdirecting Internet users to this video has for years been an online practical joke known as “Rick-Rolling.” The Twitter account for @Matsta has been suspended since this morning’s Twitter attack.

Despite today’s hack job, Twitter can probably rest assured that when it comes to using the popular messaging service, enthusiasts are still singing “Never gonna give you up.”




Edited by Erin Harrison
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

TechZone360 Contributing Editor

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

Can Science Outsmart Deepfake Deceivers? Klick Labs Proposes an Emerging Solution

By: Alex Passett    3/25/2024

Researchers at Klick Labs were able to identify audio deepfakes from authentic audio recordings via new vocal biomarker technology (alongside AI model…

Read More

Top 5 Best Ways to Integrate Technology for Successful Project-Based Learning

By: Contributing Writer    3/19/2024

Project-based learning, also popularly known as the PBL curriculum, emphasizes using and integrating technology with classroom teaching. This approach…

Read More

How to Protect Your Website From LDAP Injection Attacks

By: Contributing Writer    3/12/2024

Prevent LDAP injection attacks with regular testing, limiting access privileges, sanitizing user input, and applying the proper encoding functions.

Read More

Azure Cost Optimization: 5 Things You Can Do to Save on Azure

By: Contributing Writer    3/7/2024

Azure cost optimization is the process of managing and reducing the overall cost of using Azure. It involves understanding the resources you're using,…

Read More

Massive Meta Apps and Services Outage Impacts Users Worldwide

By: Alex Passett    3/5/2024

Meta's suite of apps and services are experiencing major global outages on Super Tuesday 2024.

Read More