Twitter Hacked But Way Too Easily

I am not surprised Twitter was hacked. I am stunned at how easy it was.

If your password is something like “password” or “secret”, you may want to read about poor Twitter user crystal who thought that “happiness” was a good password. Turns out that the folks over at Twitter don’t have any brute force defense in place. Some hacker simply used a dictionary attack and was able to hack 33 accounts, including the account of Barack Obama and Fox News. This is something right from the Hackers DVD.

The hacker has spilled his or her method over at Wired. Let me give you the short version: (lack of security)+(weak passwords)==(just a matter of time till trying every word in the dictionary works).

If you are using your social security number, your mother’s madien name, or any real word for a password, please re-read the equation above. Think long and hard and go over to Keepass, download it, install it, and use it. Use the mouse or keyboard to randomly generate a strong password. Use its reminder function to change them from time to time. Be smart and find “happiness” by using just a wee bit of common sense.