You might not be aquatinted with Twitter. The social networking site is like text messages on steroids where users often send “tweets” about their every waking thought and deed. Recently 33 accounts on Twitter were hacked including those belonging to Britney Spears, Barack Obama and CNN's Rick Sanchez. Interestingly there is no credit card information to be had on Twitter – it’s free – but what the hackers may have been after is reputation.
"A hacker who is able to Tweet using someone else's identity gains the credibility of that individual and the benefits of any relationship that individual has with the reader. Rather than make outrageous statements or obviously false claims, the hacker could post misleading comments or links to dangerous Web sites. Twitter is another vector for hackers to spread their messages and attempt to trick users who are going about their daily lives, with online fraud often the furthest thing from their minds," remarked one security analyst quoted in the article Twitter Mischief Hijacks Reputations on TechNewsWorld. Another reminds us that "Users need to be aware that cybercrime is on the rise, especially during this economic slowdown.”
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