Some Twitter staff accounts reportedly hacked

July 15, 2009

Enlarge

Personnel work at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California. A hacker believed to have struck celebrity Twitter accounts previously has reportedly broken into accounts of the microblogging service's workers including co-founder Evan Williams.

A hacker believed to have struck celebrity Twitter accounts previously has reportedly broken into accounts of the microblogging service's workers including co-founder Evan Williams.

Data swiped from Twitter employees was shown on a French website on Tuesday and TechCrunch technology news website quoted Williams confirming the hacks in an email.

Information lifted from hacked accounts was said to include resumes, salary figures, credit card numbers, message exchanges with celebrities, and a roster of employees as well as their food preferences.

Also uncovered were floor plans for the firm's new offices in San Francisco as well as mention of a possible reality television show based on Twitter.

The hacker, identified by the name "Hacker Croll," claimed to be able to get into Amazon, PayPal, and other accounts belonging to Williams and other Twitter employees.

The French blogging website posted a message in which Croll supposedly says "even the biggest and the strongest do silly things and I hope this will help them realize that nobody is safe on the net."

TechCrunch quoted Williams as saying that most of the sensitive information stolen was personal and that "this was highly distressing to myself, my wife, and other Twitter employees who were attacked."

Twitter has reportedly ramped up security.

(c) 2009 AFP