Twitter Responds to Burger King Hacking

Something fishy has been over at Twitter. The accounts of some leading businesses have been hacked over the past few week, none more sensationally than Burger King. Not only was someone able to breach Burger King’s account, but make it appear like a McDonald’s page. In fact, the description read that the failure of the Whopper had led to the sale of Burger King to Mickey D’s. The problem has been solved but question marks arose over the password security on Twitter.

Apart from Burger King, Jeep was the other brand to suffer the same fate as its account got hacked. Given the fact that these are two major brands worth billions, this creates a potentially grave situation for the average user. How can a person expect his/her Twitter account to remain safe and private? To diffuse the situation, Twitter has offered some tips for its users to protect their passwords in a better way. According to them, this would prevent your account from getting hacked.

However, this still doesn’t show what the company is doing to offer better security and protection to its users. The result of this might be many users discontinuing their Twitter accounts. Somewhat mysteriously, the number of followers of the Burger King Twitter page has increased by nearly 30,000 since it was hacked. The cyber world works in mysterious ways! To make sure your account remains safe, here are some tips offered by Twitter itself.

Create a Strong Password

As if you didn’t know that already, Twitter asked users to create strong passwords that are at least 10 characters long. This is generic advice and offers nothing new. To make your password stronger, you should use a combination of alphanumeric characters as well as other symbols. Also, make sure you have a separate password for each website you have an account on. That way, the other accounts remain safe even if one of them gets compromised.

Log In Only At Twitter.com

According to Twitter, there are numerous phishing websites designed like Twitter that are obtaining the users’ account information illegally. To prevent your login information from being stolen, make sure you only log in at Twitter.com. Avoid providing your username and password in pop-ups or other windows that claim they would connect you to Twitter.

Use Anti-Virus Software

Another pretty generic piece of advice from Twitter is that users should use updated anti-virus software, firewalls and other security programs. Obviously, this reduces the risk of your Twitter account being hacked but this isn’t something people didn’t already know.

Keep Your Login Info to Yourself

And if the two pearls of wisdom weren’t enough, Twitter has asked users to not share their login information with anyone. This is something even an infrequent internet user knows. Simply, another piece of advice that is anything but valuable.

The bottom-line is that Twitter might lose a few fans because of their approach to the matter. It would have been better had they assured the users that they are working on improving website security.

[Images via fecktv & miscellaneoushi]