Tuhel

15 Nov 2011

My Twitter Account Has Been Hacked, Please Help!

The popularity and success of the social network Twitter is great news, however the number of people who have had their accounts hacked is growing each week. Over the last few weeks and months we have seen a huge increase in the number of people whose account has hacked, with some twitter users unable to get back into their account.

The general public are not alone when it comes to Twitter accounts being hacked some seriously famous accounts have also been hacked which include Britney Spears, British Petroleum and the New York Times, see below for of other famous twitter users, do you recognise anyone, I’m sure you do. It only proves that this does happen quiet frequently these days and is not an isolated case involving a few unknown people.

Obama Twitter account ‘hacked by Frenchman’
Lady Gaga’s Twitter account hacked
PayPal UK Twitter account hacked, apparently by angry customer
BP: Our Twitter Account Was Hacked! Here are some funny tweets from the BP twitter account:
Steve Wozniak’s Twitter Account Hacked. Not even computer engineering luminaries can avoid the occasional online security breach.
Fox News Twitter Account Hacked, Claims Obama Killed
NBC News Twitter account hacked
Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra’s Twitter account is hacked
Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter Account Hacked at TED

Example  Messages You Might Get

They range form here is a picture of you, someone said some horrible thing about you on a blog, here is a gift from me and so on. The best advice to take care and check if you get any suspicious message sent directly or via @reply.

Whatever you do, please do not click on the link URL; in most cases it takes you to a website where some virus or Trojan is installed to infect the visiting computers. Hackers are looking for prey and the invitation brings people in numbers.

Here are some tips on what to look out for and what to do.

Look out for or:

• Noticed any unexpected Tweets by your account.
• Seen DM’s (direct messages) sent from your account.
• Observed other account behaviours you didn’t make or approve (like following, unfollowing, or blocking).
• Received a notification from twitter that, “You recently changed the email address associated with your Twitter account” (even though you haven’t changed your email address).

Take the following steps:

1. Change your password
2. Please change your password immediately from the Passwords Tab in your Account Settings. Please select a strong password you haven’t used before. If you can’t log in to your account, please see this troubleshooting page.
3. Revoke connections

While logged in, visit the Applications tab in Account Settings. Revoke access for any third-party application that you don’t recognize.

• Update your new password in your trusted third-party applications
• Delete all the direct messages in your message inbox on twitter
• Send a message to your followers acknowledging that your account was hacked and people should not click the link. Direct message them if you want to.

Contact twitter support if you still require assistance here is a support article from twitter, also read thus my account is compromised/hacked and I can’t log in!