Twitter call in the lawyers after attack by hackers
By Andrew Redfern @ 17th July 2009 5:12 pm
Although Twitter are officially stating that these attacks by hackers are not actually aimed at Twitter itself but the specific company staff members in question it has been revealed that the popular microblogging site has sought legal advice after the latest attack.
“We are in touch with our legal counsel about what this theft means for Twitter, the hacker and anyone who accepts…or publishes these stolen documents, ” said Twitter’s co-founder Biz Stone “About a month ago, an administrative employee here at Twitter was targeted and her personal email account was hacked.From the personal account, we believe the hacker was able to gain information which allowed access to this employee’s Google Apps account which contained Docs, Calendars and other Google Apps Twitter relies on for sharing notes, spreadsheets, ideas, financial details and more within the company.”
The hacker got into Twitter’s company information via an employee’s Google Apps account, which had the spreadsheets and financial details stored in it. Mr Stone said there was no inherant weakness in the software.
It is believed a French hacker with the nickname “Hacker Croll” gained access to the files simply by guessing staff members’ passwords.
The hacker than offered the documents to several high-profile technology blogs. TechCrunch, one of the most well known and respected blogs in Silicon Valley, sparked massive controversy after it decided to publish some of the material.
It is embaressing for Twitter but it is ultimately a timely reminder to everyone about the need for web security. The main fallout has centred around Techcrunch’s decision to go public with the hacked documents.
“There is clearly an ethical line here that we don’t want to cross, and the vast majority of these documents aren’t going to be published, at least by us” wrote TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington “but a few of the documents have so much news value that we think it’s appropriate to publish them”.
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