Hack of Tech Journalist Reveals Flaws in Cloud Security

Story first reported from USA Today

SEATTLE – The security community is on alert for hackers who might try to emulate the simple trickery used to breach a prominent technology journalist's Amazon, Apple, Google and Twitter accounts. That hacking caper has rekindled concerns about whether Apple's iCloud, Google Apps, Amazon's Cloud Drive, Microsoft's Windows Live and other Internet-delivered services do enough to authenticate users, security analysts say.

"People are being urged to trust their data to the Internet cloud, but then you find that the operational security is alarmingly lax," says Stephen Cobb, security analyst at anti-virus firm ESET.

Hackers devastated Wired reporter Mat Honan's digital life. In doing so, they highlighted how Web companies have been slow to embrace more robust systems for ensuring that users who log into online accounts are who they say.

Merchants, banks, media companies and social networks require varying amounts of information to open and access online accounts. Many ask for only a few bits of information to make changes, such as resetting a password. That makes it easy for hackers to abuse the prevailing systems, which rely on asking users to answer questions.

Many banks and Google Gmail offer an optional service that sends to your cellphone a single-use PIN code that you must enter at their websites, along with your username and password, before you can complete certain transactions.

Such multifactor authentication systems are considered more difficult for the bad guys to subvert but less convenient for account holders to use. Yet the need for wider deployment of stronger systems is intensifying, argues Todd Feinman, CEO of database security firm Identity Finder.

Honan detailed how hackers tricked an Amazon rep over the phone into revealing the last four digits of his credit card number. Next, they used that information to persuade an Apple rep to reset his Apple ID password, which enabled them to wipe clean Honan's iPhone, iPad and MacBook, destroying all of his files, including irreplaceable photos of his daughter. Apple has suspended its phone password-reset service and launched a security review, says spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. Amazon did not respond to interview requests.

Web firms are unlikely to switch to one-time PIN systems anytime soon. "Many … are expensive and difficult to manage," says Chris Brennan, CEO of security firm NetAuthority. "And companies are concerned they could frustrate the user."

Meanwhile, consumer awareness remains low, says Gregg Martin, FishNet Security's directory of mobile security. Consumers will have to demand stronger authentication systems and be prepared to accept "a slight level of inconvenience," Martin says.

ESET's Cobb argues that Web companies should take the initiative. "Improving security is 100% the responsibility of the cloud service providers because they are the ones trying to sign people up to the cloud model."

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OBAMA'S DEATH IS REPORTED ON FOX NEWS

Hackers broke into Fox's political Twitter account early Monday, posting updates saying President Barack Obama had been assassinated. Some are saying this came from someone using an IBM as400 Server.
A series of six tweets coming from the Fox News Politics account reported that Obama had been shot to death in Iowa and the shooter was unknown.
In a statement posted on its website later Monday morning, Fox News called the tweets malicious and false. It said the hacking is being investigated.
Obama plans to spend the July Fourth holiday at a barbecue at the White House with military families and administration staffers.
Secret Service spokesman says the agency wouldn't comment on the tweets.
Fox's political Twitter account has more than 34,000 followers.

Hackers Mimic Huffington Post's Twitter Feed

AP

A Huffington Post spokesman says the left-leaning news and opinion Web site was not hacked when a Twitter social network feed emerged in its name and began issuing insults with a conservative bent.

Mario Ruiz tells The Associated Press in an e-mail Saturday that the account isn't operated by The Huffington Post, but was set up to appear as though it was. He followed up later Saturday to say that Twitter had suspended the account.

Some Twitter subscribers earlier Saturday mistook the mimicked feed for The Huffington Post's own commentary when they were alerted to it by other Twitter users. The feed included mostly unpublishable insults about political and media figures, including President Barack Obama and MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann.

There also was an admonition to "Vote McCain" in 2012.

Twitter Buys Mixer Labs

BBC News

The micro-blogging website Twitter is buying the location tracking start-up Mixer Labs for an undisclosed sum.

Mixer Labs, founded by two former Google employees, makes an application for Twitter called GeoAPI.

Twitter chief executive Evan Williams said the deal would allow Twitter users to show people where they are when they post updates to the site.

The application will also allow users to search where an event is happening, the firm said.

On the company's blog, a statement said: "We want to know what's happening, and more precisely, where is it happening.

"As a dramatic example, twittering 'Earthquake!' alone is not as informative as 'Earthquake!' coupled with your current location".

Twitter is a social networking site in which users write messages of no more than 140 characters.

An estimated 58 million people use Twitter around the world.

Twitter Leads Small Businesses Through Disasters

Story from the Wall Street Journal

'You can't do that with a one-eight-hundred number'

Twitter has turned out to be a useful tool for some small businesses coping with customer-service or public-relations crises.

The social-media service -- where users send short "tweets" to followers who have signed up to receive the messages -- came in handy for Innovative Beverage Group Holdings Inc., whose drankbeverage.com site crashed last month after a surge in traffic following a segment on Fox News for the company's so-called relaxation beverage, which contains "calming" ingredients like valerian root and melatonin. News Corp. owns Fox News as well as The Wall Street Journal.

Innovative Beverage notified consumers on its Twitter feed that it was working to resolve the problem. The company also did a search on Twitter for mentions of the site crash, so it could respond with tweets describing its repair efforts.

Peter Bianchi, Innovative's chief executive, says the site's meltdown was devastating, since a small business rarely receives national TV coverage. But he says the 12-hour site crash didn't appear to have any lasting damage and online sales of the beverage peaked the following day to their highest level to date.

"Twitter gave us an up-to-the-minute ability to take what would normally be a crisis situation and make it just another event," says Mr. Bianchi. "You can't do that with a 1-800-number."

As of Monday, drankbeverage.com had more than 1,000 Twitter followers.

Wine critic Gary Vaynerchuk found Twitter helpful in responding to an attack on his web site.

Twitter also helped wine critic Gary Vaynerchuk respond quickly after his company's Web site, Corkd.com, was hacked so that visitors were greeted with pornography.

While technicians plugged away at the problem, which took about eight hours to resolve, Mr. Vaynerchuk says he shot a video of himself apologizing to customers of the wine-review site. He then posted it on a video-hosting site and linked to the footage from Twitter, where he has nearly 900,000 followers.

Mr. Vaynerchuk, who owns New-York based Cork'd LLC, also tweeted apologies to about 65 people who tweeted about the incident. "Every person that mentioned Cork'd on Twitter got a message from me and a link to the video," he says.

Mr. Vaynerchuk says his Web site saw no drop in traffic during the days that followed. He also received about 75 emails from customers complimenting him on how he handled the matter.

Scott Townsend used Twitter to contact laundry-service customers in an ice storm.

To be sure, Twitter can also be the root of a problem for entrepreneurs. Virginia Lawrence, a director at Ballantines PR, a boutique agency in Los Angeles, monitors Twitter daily on behalf of several small businesses for tweets that could harm their reputations.

Recently, she says she found several criticizing a client that were from a former employee the firm had fired. The dismissed worker "was saying negative things about how the company was run, as if they were doing illegal things," she says. Ms. Lawrence notified the client, who then approached the terminated employee about the matter, and soon after the scurrilous tweets stopped.

Twitter can also be an effective way to get a message across to consumers in an emergency. When an ice storm struck the Bartlesville, Okla., area last winter, United Linen & Uniform Services notified customers about the status of their orders through Twitter in addition to its Web site. Scott Townsend, marketing director for the laundry service, says many consumers today will find information about a business on Twitter before anywhere else because it's where they hang out online. "You fish where the fish are," he says.

Mr. Townsend adds that while email was also an option, entering customers' addresses would have been tedious and time-consuming.

Entrepreneurs should bear in mind that Twitter is unlikely to be of help in dealing with a problem if it isn't used regularly otherwise, says Shel Israel, author of "Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods."

"If you just go to Twitter when you have a crisis, you will have no followers and no credibility," he says. "The key to using Twitter effectively is to build trust with people who are relevant to your business."

Steve Fusek, owner of Fusek's True Value LLC, a hardware store in Indianapolis, now has an employee dedicated to updating the shop's Twitter profile during business hours. Mr. Fusek says consumers expect to see frequent tweets and swift responses to customer-service inquiries they post.

"You can't just sign up and leave it. You have to have someone on it," he says. "If you're not legitimate, you'll be found out quickly."