From: Forbes
Jess Collen
Twitter is throwing up its hands. It doesn’t take 140 characters to say: “We give up.” When the Associated Press’s Twitter account was hacked, it created a furor. Twitter has firmly resolved that…We should come to expect more of this.
Cyberattacks have been all over the news over the last several weeks. The hijacking of A.P.’s Twitter feed roiled markets with the fake reports of an explosion at the White House, and the Twitter feed belonging to U.K. newspaper The Guardian was similarly hit. Twitter’s rather tepid response was an email to major media and news organizations, reading in part:
“There have been several recent incidents of high-profile news and media Twitter handles being compromised,” read the email. “We believe that these attacks will continue, and that news and media organizations will continue to be high-value targets to hackers.”
How’s that for a defense? “We believe that the attacks will continue.”
Among the obvious and rather impractical cyberattack safeguards offered by Twitter were the adoption of passwords of at least 20 characters in length, using multiple, random strings of numbers, letters and symbols. Twitter also suggests using a single computer, not used for other purposes on the Internet, as the single point to access a Twitter feed. Washing your hands and brushing your teeth on the hour may also be good ideas, but not so practical. Twitter is rumored to be proceeding with the implementation of the type of two-factor authentication already used by Facebook. If you try to log into the service from an unfamiliar location, for example, a two-factor authentication system will require addition inputs before permitting account access.
Who’s behind the cyberattacks? Just last week, Dutch national Sven Kamphuis was arrested just outside of Barcelona in a “mobile bunker,” a van “equipped with various antennas to scan frequencies.” Kamphuis is accused of launching the recent attack against anti-Spam watchdog organization, Spamhaus. Kamphuis called himself a spokesperson and diplomat belonging to the “Telecommunications and Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Republic of Cyberbunker.”
If a guy in a van can tie up major communications channels, there’s no need for massive resources or sophisticated technology.
Twitter is throwing up its hands. It doesn’t take 140 characters to say: “We give up.” When the Associated Press’s Twitter account was hacked, it created a furor. Twitter has firmly resolved that…We should come to expect more of this.
Cyberattacks have been all over the news over the last several weeks. The hijacking of A.P.’s Twitter feed roiled markets with the fake reports of an explosion at the White House, and the Twitter feed belonging to U.K. newspaper The Guardian was similarly hit. Twitter’s rather tepid response was an email to major media and news organizations, reading in part:
“There have been several recent incidents of high-profile news and media Twitter handles being compromised,” read the email. “We believe that these attacks will continue, and that news and media organizations will continue to be high-value targets to hackers.”
How’s that for a defense? “We believe that the attacks will continue.”
Among the obvious and rather impractical cyberattack safeguards offered by Twitter were the adoption of passwords of at least 20 characters in length, using multiple, random strings of numbers, letters and symbols. Twitter also suggests using a single computer, not used for other purposes on the Internet, as the single point to access a Twitter feed. Washing your hands and brushing your teeth on the hour may also be good ideas, but not so practical. Twitter is rumored to be proceeding with the implementation of the type of two-factor authentication already used by Facebook. If you try to log into the service from an unfamiliar location, for example, a two-factor authentication system will require addition inputs before permitting account access.
Who’s behind the cyberattacks? Just last week, Dutch national Sven Kamphuis was arrested just outside of Barcelona in a “mobile bunker,” a van “equipped with various antennas to scan frequencies.” Kamphuis is accused of launching the recent attack against anti-Spam watchdog organization, Spamhaus. Kamphuis called himself a spokesperson and diplomat belonging to the “Telecommunications and Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Republic of Cyberbunker.”
If a guy in a van can tie up major communications channels, there’s no need for massive resources or sophisticated technology.
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