Breaking into Twitter accounts with a dictionary password attack

by Graham Cluley on January 14, 2009 | Comments Off

Filed Under: Social networks, Twitter, Video

Last week we discussed how a hacker was able to break into the Twitter accounts of celebrities. It turned out that a Twitter employee, who had administrative access to members' accounts, had her account broken into because she chose a dictionary word for her own password.

What password had she chosen? "Happiness".

We've discussed before that it's not a good idea at all to use a dictionary word for any password you have.

Below you'll find a video I made last night, making the serious point in a lighthearted way. :)

(Enjoy this video? You can check out more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel and subscribe if you like)

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About the author

Graham Cluley has worked in the computer security industry for more than 20 years, developing anti-virus software and doing quite a lot of talking about internet threats. He's won awards for his blogging, but is proudest of the text adventure games he wrote when he was still wearing short trousers. You can learn more about those (the games, not the trousers) at grahamcluley.com. Send Graham an email, subscribe to his updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and App.net, and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.