Hackers Twitter Around

The flip side of success has hackers hitting Twitter, the rage in social media communications. It's hard to understand that people waste much of their lives on seek-and-destroy missions with no real gain. Just accept that they do. The same knowledge and time could not only been spent building on to that which they seek to attack; they could have been creating something new and profitable for themselves. They could possibly even rake in millions while doing so. Plausibility aside, Twitter has been positioned with a huge bullseye as a target.

The attacks
One attack amounted to a takeover of several accounts connected to Facebook. Among the high-profile accounts hacked were two registered as Barack Obama and Britney Spears. What you received was a link to a web page where your own account information would be hijacked. Another threat breached the Twitter security code enabling a script which will invade your computer, raid your personal information and of course lead to identity theft. In the more natural flow of being commonplace, what would the more expected then the usual infiltration of a porn entity of some type? After all we do need consistency. (For more on daily twitter attack reports go to http://www.informationweek.com/ and for direct links to full reports can be found in the supporting links listed following this article.)

Why Twitter?
I asked that question of a person once known to dabble in hacking and they smiled, "Why not, they mean something now." With Twitter having grown in leaps and bounds the power of opportunity is too appealing for now only online theft but just in being able to create such a massive disturbance. Not all hacking is malicious but with Twitter's immense popularity there are many gold rings to be plucked on this merry-go-round.

The thrill?
Certainly not thrilling for a victim. You can only imagine the geek dance that took place when the hackers cracked into the Barack Obama account. They in effect felt like they just took down the President. Their adrenaline rush must have been off the charts. What one has to wonder, if that indeed was the true President of The United States account wasn't this now officially designated an act of terrorism? When it comes to Homeland Security, I have visions of the old margarine commercial which cried out, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" followed by darkness, thunder and lightning.

Daily twit trend
Every day I receive a number "now following you" messages. If you would like I invite you too as well (RichNaran). At least twice a day I find when I click on the link to checkout an account, it was deleted or locked down and being investigated. I am also seeing blatant spamming more and more. It's one thing to promote your content it's another to just cut to the sales. I for one don't mind is you are promoting yourself and your content. Pairing your tweet with your site as pass through gateway just to boost your traffic report is obnoxious. You are bringing on to yourself the wrong kind of recognition. The other day I clicked a link that did exactly this. When I checked back the tweet had been deleted. Possibly in response to a complaint. More and more I find links to rss feeds on blogs with several lines and the need to click through to read the full post. The fact is that only works for the short term. I, myself, delete accounts that only pull that maneuver. I know this is become a rule of many others who use the service. People will appreciate more if you go the direct link route to the full article or post. If fact they will grow to respect and trust your tweets more. If you think on it, you are delivering traffic to a site where if someone follows through and likes it, thats where they will return. People forget what they don't need. No one needs to be constantly redirected . What follows is a severe loss in your own credibility. Your site or blog is history because it will be deemed useless. Web 2.0 is about the speed of sharing information. Unnecessary stopovers are not appreciated

A tweet reminder
I've mentioned that one bad practice before. The problem is I not only see it growing, it is the lifeblood of the hacking community. I see ramifications of those that use this technique being mistaken for a hacker. That will undo all your hard work in building a web presence. As the hackers escalate in the use of this same method to wreak their havoc on the Twitter community, it might be wise that you think twice before using that traffic boosting technique. It could lead to an undeserved reputation.

Sources:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216000011&subSection=All+Stories

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216000011&subSection=All+Stories

http://www.associatedcontent.com/audio/7318/twittering_blog_links_for_traffic_a.html?cat=35