Did Weak Password Cause Twitter Attack

According to a report filed by Kim Zetter of Wired News, an 18-year-old hacker calling himself GMZ gained access to the account of a Twitter employee on Monday using a dictionary attack program that he created. Rohati, A New Company In The Security Space, Provides Identity and Access Control At Application Laye

Because the Twitter employee's account had access to administrative tools, GMZ was able to access any Twitter member's account by resetting the password.

GMZ told Zetter that he subsequently offered members of an online forum access to Twitter accounts upon request.

Twitter on Monday acknowledged that 33 high-profile accounts had been compromised, including accounts used by Facebook, Fox News, The Huffington Post, Barack Obama, Britney Spears, and CNN's Rick Sanchez.

Twitter said that it had identified the problem and that the company was dealing with it. It advised users to reset their passwords and to make sure that the e-mail address listed their Twitter's account setting area is legitimate.

Dictionary attacks, as the name suggest, are automated login attempts that try every word in the attack program's dictionary. Because this is a well-known attack method, passwords that consist solely of single words, regardless of language, are deemed weak.