Twitter Hacked

twitter

The big news today for Twitter users is that there has been a major hacking attempt that may have seen around a quarter of a million accounts exposed.

This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users. – Twitter Blog

Twitter realised that the hack would take more than 140 characters to explain, so they took to their blog to let us know that we needed to change passwords. I use the word ‘we’ because I was one of those 250 000 people that had their accounts compromised.

I must admit that when I got the email I was a little hesitant to follow the link they supplied to reset my password. Similar emails have been the way phishing scams have worked for years. This one looked real but just in case I tried to access Twitter only to find that I couldn’t log in. I then used the ‘Lost Password’ feature in Twitter to do my reset instead of following the link, just in case.

I’ll admit that I was pretty pleased with the way that Twitter moved swiftly to ensure the safety of their users. As well as dealing with the direct threat, they’ve given some helpful keys to ensuring safety online. Whether you’re using Twitter, Facebook or any other kind of online service, their advice is work checking out.

Though only a very small percentage of our users were potentially affected by this attack, we encourage all users to take this opportunity to ensure that they are following good password hygiene, on Twitter and elsewhere on the Internet. Make sure you use a strong password – at least 10 (but more is better) characters and a mixture of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols – that you are not using for any other accounts or sites. Using the same password for multiple online accounts significantly increases your odds of being compromised. If you are not using good password hygiene, take a moment now to change your Twitter passwords. For more information about making your Twitter and other Internet accounts more secure, read our Help Center documentation or the FTC’s guide on passwords. – Twitter Blog

If you’re looking for a great way to create and manage secure passwords, I’d advise you to check out LastPass. I’ve found using LastPass to be easy, safe and helpful.

The LastPass team believes your online experience can be easier, faster and safer. Collectively we lose more than 10,300 hours per year retrieving lost passwords, making new ones or talking to call center representatives about them. And it gets much worse if a password is stolen and misused. We go online to connect with people, explore, shop and learn. We certainly don’t go online to fuss with passwords or risk our privacy, personal or financial information. Designed by web enthusiasts and skilled application developers, LastPass was created to make the online experience easier and safer for everyone.

By the way, if you’re not already following me on Twitter, you’ll find me here.



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Is Fashion More Important than Life?

Are you sometimes amazed by what passes for news?

When I was scanning the latest stories online this morning to prepare for my radio show I spotted a major headline telling me that Princess Mary and Pippa Middleton have both been seen wearing the same dress design. And it’s not as if they turned up to the same event wearing the same outfit. Pippa wore the dress to the Wimbeldon finals whereas Princess Mary wore the dress to a christening …. a couple of months ago …. in a different country.

Seriously? Aren’t there more pressing world issues to concern us?

Of course the dress clash wasn’t the main headline. That was reserved for the divorce of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Further down the page was the story of the political debate surrounding asylum seekers. How can the reporting of the divorce of one couple, as tragic as divorce is for those concerned, be more important than an issue that could decide whether hundreds of people live or die?

Sadly, many times media just serves up what consumers want to consume. Do we really want to read this kind of stuff and call it news? Isn’t there a better standard?



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Davy Jones of the Monkees Dead at 66

So very sad to hear of the passing of Monkees front man Davy Jones from a heart attack.

Davy Jones, a onetime teen heartthrob as a member of the 1960s made-for-television pop band The Monkees, died on Wednesday after suffering a heart attack near his home in Florida, according to his longtime publicist. He was 66.

Jones was stricken while attending to horses he kept in Indiantown, Florida, about halfway between the Atlantic coast and Lake Okeechobee, spokeswoman Helen Kensick said. He had lived with his third wife, Jessica Pacheco-Jones, in Hollywood, Florida, in recent years, she said.

She gave no further details of his death.

Born in Manchester, England, Jones was the lone British member and principal teen idol of the rock quartet featured for two seasons on the NBC comedy series “The Monkees.” The prime-time hit was inspired in part by the Beatles film “A Hard Day’s Night” and ran from the fall of 1966 to August 1968.Reuters

The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert “Bob” Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, and Englishman Davy Jones. The band’s music was initially supervised by producer Don Kirshner.

At the time of the group’s formation, its producers saw The Monkees as a Beatles-like band. At the start, the band members provided vocals, but were given only limited performing and production opportunities. They eventually fought for and earned the right to collectively supervise all musical output under the band’s name. The group undertook several concert tours, allowing an opportunity to perform as a live band as well as on the TV series. Although the show was canceled in 1968, the band continued to record music through 1970. The group reached the height of fame from 1966 to 1968, and influenced many future artists. In 1986, their 20th year, the television show and music experienced a revival, which led to a series of reunion tours, and new records featuring various incarnations of the band’s lineup.Wiki



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What Were You Searching in 2011?

What did the world want to know in 2011?

Every year Google lets us know what the world has been searching to find. They publish the most common search terms in their annual zeitgeist.

The top ten things we wanted to know about globally, according to Google, are as follows:

1. Rebecca Black
2. Google+
3. Ryan Dunn
4. Casey Anthony
5. Battlefield 3
6. iPhone 5
7. Adele
8. (Fukushima I Plant)
9. Steve Jobs
10. iPad2

You can visit the zeitgeist page to see results broken down by various regions.

This year Google has also created a video to give us an overview of the year in searches. Watch the video above to see what we wanted to know this year.



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Christchurch Earthquake Update

Several days on from the massive quake which has caused so much destruction in Christchurch, I took the opportunity yesterday to update my radio listeners on what was happening in New Zealand.

Tuesday’s 6.3 magnitude tremor is the largest of many aftershocks from the 7.1 magnitude quake in the same area on the 4th of September last year.

At this time 123 people are confirmed dead with 200 still missing and many hundreds injured.

Allan Lee is Director of News and Current Affairs for Rhema Broadcasting Group in New Zealand. He joined me live during my program on 98.5 Sonshine FM the day after the quake as he headed by road to Christchurch. I spoke to Allan again yesterday and he updated me with details from the last couple of days.

Since we last spoke Allan had been into the city of Christchurch and witnessed the devastation as well as travelling through the suburbs and finding out how the people of the area are coping.

You can hear our discussion by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

I also asked Allan how we should be praying for those caught in the tragic events. He reminded us that while the physical needs are being attended to as quickly as possible, the emotional scars will take many years to heal.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR250211_1401.mp3]

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