Hackers hit Twitter and Facebook

[dirtydog]

Hackers hit Twitter and Facebook

Facebook ws not completely taken offline by the attack

Micro-blogging service Twitter and social networking site Facebook have been severely disrupted by hackers.

Twitter was taken offline for more than two hours whilst Facebook's service was "degraded", according to the firms.

The popular sites were subject to so-called denial-of-service attacks on Thursday, the companies believe.

Denial-of-service (DOS) attacks take various forms but often involve a company's servers being flooded with data in an effort to disable them.

"Attacks such as this are malicious efforts orchestrated to disrupt and make unavailable services such as online banks, credit card payment gateways, and in this case, Twitter for intended customers or users," said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on the company's blog.

The service was restored shortly after the blog post, but the companies have had to continue to fend off the attack.

Facebook said its service was reduced but not taken offline.

"No user data was at risk and we have restored full access to the site for most users," spokeswoman Brandee Barker told the AFP news agency.

"We're continuing to monitor the situation to ensure that users have the fast and reliable experience they've come to expect from Facebook."

Poster Child

Both sites have previously been targeted by hackers.

For example, in January this year Twitter announced that 33 accounts had been hacked, including those belonging to US President Barack Obama and singer Britney Spears.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams on BBC Two's Newsnight

The latest attacks are what is known as a denial-of-service. These often use networks of computers - known as botnets -under the control of hackers.

The strategy is often employed by protestors against, for example, government websites, said Roger Thompson, chief research officer at security firm AVG.

"Twitter has become a poster-child for our always-connected, always-on internet culture," he told BBC News.

"With the eyes of the world's media all trained on Twitter at the moment, those behind this latest attack may be using it as a means of highlighting the vulnerability of the sites we take for granted.

"There is no profit to be made from DOS and those who do carry out an attack like this will lose their botnet, showing there is no gain to be had."

Both sites now have millions of users worldwide.

Facebook claims more than 250m active users whilst a ComScore study suggests that Twitter had around 45 million users worldwide as of June 2009.

However, as many users interact with the service through mobile phones or third-party software, the actual number of users is likely to be higher.

The sites recently garnered worldwide attention when they were used by Iranians to co-ordinate demonstrations following the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.

Many protestors believed there was electoral fraud and opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi should have won.

Twitter chose to delay upgrade work during the protests to allow communication to continue.

In a BBC interview, co-founder Evan Williams denied the move had not been a response to a US State Department request.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Hackers hit Twitter and Facebook

[tjyflhol]

Bastards, they really slowed down my Chess games today.

[Mr R Sole]

Biz Stone

With a name like that....you can bet he/she's American...surely.

33 accounts had been hacked, including those belonging to US President Barack Obama and singer Britney Spears.

Ok, Ok I can understand Britney having facebook, but the President of the US??? didn't realise he had so much time on his hands??? What got nothing better to do than check out ya facebook!!!! Oh lordy we are safe now?!!!!

The sites recently garnered worldwide attention when they were used by Iranians to co-ordinate demonstrations following the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. Many protestors believed there was electoral fraud and opposition leader Mir Hussein Mousavi should have won.

What the hell has this got to do with the story of the hackers??? Iranians coordinating political protest on facebook....oh well there's something else the ministry of corrupt morals over there can ban now....

Poor buggers...

[kingwilly]

Ok, Ok I can understand Britney having facebook, but the President of the US??? didn't realise he had so much time on his hands??? What got nothing better to do than check out ya facebook!!!! Oh lordy we are safe now?!!!!

erm, did you not pay attention during the recent US elections?

[madjbs]

even if he did he probably wouldn't remember or understand......

[Mr R Sole]

even if he did he probably wouldn't remember or understand

Remember what??? Why did they use facebook to cast their votes??? wouldn't surprise me...

Also I don't pay much attention to America...or there little elections...don't really care whose in in power over there..

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

Come on enlighten this poor dumb fool....

[Humbert]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gordon-Brown/67132943785

A link to Gordon Brown's facebook page.

Ok, Ok I can understand Britney having facebook, but the President of the US??? didn't realise he had so much time on his hands??? What got nothing better to do than check out ya facebook!!!! Oh lordy we are safe now?!!!!

[kingwilly]

Come on enlighten this poor dumb fool....

google is your friend

[Dan]

How terrible. 4,000,000 tweets about making a cup of tea and wondering what to have for lunch gone forever.