Article 7- 2/28/10

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100226/ap_on_hi_te/eu_britain_twitter;_ylt=AprMZZFdAN1hGNyejuu2WY8jtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTJuMGdyZWUxBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMjI2L2V1X2JyaXRhaW5fdHdpdHRlcgRwb3MDMwRzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA2Z1bGxuYnNwc3Rvcg--

This article is about Twitter scams that have been happening in London. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter states “Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets.” The article states that hijackers hack into accounts and send sexually explicit messages to their followers. This type of hijacking is known as “phishing scams.” This is where the user is sent to a fake web site and they are to part with their password and then the hackers are able to log into their account and send sexual messages. This happened to Ed Miliband, the British energy minister. Another case also happened to Harriet Harman who is the House of Commons leader. Both said they would never send messages like this. It says that “Intel UK, the British arm of the chip maker, apologized to its followers.”

We all know that hackers are out there on the Internet, but I believe that technology should be ahead of them and should know how to prevent this. Twitter is such a popular website that it should not be having problems such as these. I believe this is going to impact Ed and Harriet in many ways. These messages that were sent by hackers could be taken seriously and they could lose their job. Many may not believe that this was a hacker. It would be horrible is they both lost their job because of a technology problem. If Twitter does not take hold of this problem it could affect many others, which would not be good. I think that Twitter should get on top of this problem right and way and make sure that these “phishing scams” do not occur anymore. Luckily I do not have a Twitter account, so this will not have an effect on me.