Twitter faces security meltdown

Underscoring its increasing prominence, microblogging site Twitter became the target of a phishing campaign directed at users, and was hit by a partial security meltdown earlier this week.

The security meltdown resulted in a number of "high-profile" Twitter accounts being compromised. Twitter confirmed on Monday, that the account of President-elect Barack Obama was hacked. These accounts were hijacked by an individual who accessed tools meant to help administrators, among other things, "edit [the] email address associated with their Twitter account when they can't remember or get stuck." According to Twitter, these tools have since been taken offline, and will only be restored when "they're safe and secure."

Pertaining to the ongoing phishing attempt, Twitter advises victims--who gave out their passwords to the fraudulent site--to use the reset password link to regain access. An email will be sent to the address associated with their accounts after which they will be able to create a new password.

For more on this story:
- check out this article from InformationWeek
- check out this blog entry from Twitter

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