Obama & Britney's Twitter Accounts - Easily Hacked!
Many organizations rely on security questions as a way to identify the true owner of an account. However, the recent success of a young Frenchman with limited computer skills in gaining access to President Obama's Twitter account suggests it's a flawed approach. Preset security questions are not the best way to protect an account, said Parry Aftab, a privacy lawyer and executive director of WiredSafety.
After months of investigation by police and the FBI, a French hacker accused of breaking into the Twitter accounts of President Barack Obama and singer Britney Spears was arrested earlier this week.
Francois Cousteix, a 25-year-old unemployed man from central France who is known online as "Hacker Croll," is also accused of breaking into Twitter administrators' accounts and copying confidential data -- an attack that was acknowledged by Twitter cofounder Biz Stone last summer.
Cousteix is reportedly no technology genius, nor did he have bad intentions; rather, he simply wanted to point out Twitter's vulnerabilities, according to reports. Cousteix has confessed to the hacks and now must appear in court in Clermont-Ferrand on June 24. If convicted, he faces the possibility of two years in prison and a 30,000 euros (US$40,226) fine.
Perhaps most important of all for us to realize, however, is that "it is *not* safe to keep usernames and passwords in a text or Word file on your desktop. Many types of malware easily find such files and exploit what they find.
After months of investigation by police and the FBI, a French hacker accused of breaking into the Twitter accounts of President Barack Obama and singer Britney Spears was arrested earlier this week.
Francois Cousteix, a 25-year-old unemployed man from central France who is known online as "Hacker Croll," is also accused of breaking into Twitter administrators' accounts and copying confidential data -- an attack that was acknowledged by Twitter cofounder Biz Stone last summer.
Cousteix is reportedly no technology genius, nor did he have bad intentions; rather, he simply wanted to point out Twitter's vulnerabilities, according to reports. Cousteix has confessed to the hacks and now must appear in court in Clermont-Ferrand on June 24. If convicted, he faces the possibility of two years in prison and a 30,000 euros (US$40,226) fine.
Perhaps most important of all for us to realize, however, is that "it is *not* safe to keep usernames and passwords in a text or Word file on your desktop. Many types of malware easily find such files and exploit what they find.
