Twitter account hacking: Protect your profile
Guns N’ Roses fans fell prey to a prank by a hacker that gained access to Axl Rose’s official Twitter account, Kaspersky reported in a press statement.
According to Kaspersky this is not the first time a famous Twitter account has been hacked, and will most likely not be the last.
Stefan Tanase, senior security researcher for the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky Lab EEMEA says, “Barack Obama, Britney Spears, British Petroleum and the New York Times are just a few big names/brands that have gone through the painful process of Twitter accounts being hacked.”
Tanase adds: “With such growth and interest among Internet users, it is no wonder that such sites are becoming favourable targets among hackers! And this trend will only continue to grow into 2011. So, whether you manage an official Twitter account or a personal one, you should know how Twitter accounts get hacked so that you can effectively protect yourself.”
Kaspersky offer the following warnings to help secure your Twitter account:
- Weak passwords – Do not use short, trivial passwords. Think of something unique. While this may seem obvious, this is the first mistake many Twitter users make.
- Phishing pages -If they cannot guess the password, cyber criminals will try to make you give it to them, without you even realising it. Keep your eyes wide open for e-mails or tweets asking you to reset your password, especially if you have not requested it.
- Shortened links – be careful what links you click on while using Twitter. URL shortening services such as bit.ly are doing a great job masking the final destination of your click. You can unwillingly land on a server which is hosting phishing sites or pages distributing malware.
Kaspersky says that cybercriminals have made Twitter one of their favorite phishing targets, where we are seeing a trend where they will send @messages to users that look like they contain information of interest or come from a username that is only slightly different from someone that you are following on the site.
As cybercrime grows and sites such as Twitter increasingly become targets, it is important for PC and Internet users to not only take note of how hackers are using such sites, but to also keep all applications updated, said Kaspersky.
According to Kaspersky this means everything – from operating systems, to anti-virus solutions and even browser plug-ins.
Kaspersky warns that you can be using the latest version of Google Chrome, but you’ll still get infected if your Windows security updates are disabled.
Fully effective security means several layers of defence, where you can’t break any ring in the chain, Kaspersky concluded.
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