Thousands of people on Twitter complaining that they can not log into their accounts anymore. Is it a technical malfunction or something more serious?
Eric Weaver tried logging in to his Twitter account this summer, but he was locked out. A hacker had broken into his account and changed the password. But it didn’t end there.
So Eric made some digging and what he found out was his twitter account was being sold in an online forum at Hackforums.net. His account wasn’t the only thing that was on sale he also found that software was being sold online to automate the process of quickly hacking dozens of Twitter accounts.
“I was surprised this was all happening so openly,” said Weaver, an advertising executive in Seattle. The hackers “are able to operate with seeming impunity.”
Weaver’s experience is not unique. Other Twitter hacking victims have also discovered that their accounts are for sale in online forums like ForumKorner.com and HackForums.net, where coveted one-word Twitter handles are sold in bulk for as little as $10.
Weaver said he has since strengthened his Twitter password by making it 15 characters long and more complex, but added that the person who he thinks hacked his Twitter account continues to operate openly online.