A number of big name Twitter accounts were hacked this morning, a day after Twitter users were targeted in a large-scale phishing attack.
In all, 33 accounts were briefly commandeered by a person or persons who got their hands on editing tools used by Twitter’s support team. Among the victims were some of the best-known Twitterers, including Barack Obama, CNN’s Rick Sanchez and Britney Spears. The Obama hijackers, who had control of the Prez-Elect’s account for just a few minutes, took the opportunity to post an affiliate link to a page with a survey and promotion. With several others, the hackers’ intent was merely malicious. I’ve borrowed the below screen grabs from Brent Csutoras.
According to Twitter the hacked accounts were unrelated to a phishing attack that happened over the weekend. That incident was a straightforward scam that used e-mails presenting themselves as Twitter direct messages to get users to divulge password information.