Twitter was infected this week by a virus that flooded user’s accounts with odd messages and prompted un-clicked pop-ups—some of which contained malicious code that could take over your computer if it didn’t have the right safeguards. Even the White House’s official Twitter feed was blitzed.
Yeah, it was all cleaned up in short order, but the fact that some hacker could inject a bug into the system and quickly impact Washington’s big-wig communications is just a bit unsettling.
Of course, this isn’t a unique incident in the world of Internet socializing. Facebook has been wrestling with malicious programmers for a while now. The Guardian reported this week that—according to Lord Richard Allan, Facebook’s head of European public policy—”hacking of Facebook accounts to scam people out of money has become a ‘major issue’ for the social networking site.” Lord Allan went on to say that Facebook is hustling to set up a whole new wave of security measures to keep the bad guys at bay. So don’t be surprised if you’re soon shown photos of your own friends and then asked to verify their names.
For that matter, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by any of this junk. Wasn’t it Sir Isaac Newton who said that for every cool new thing there is an equal and opposite downer? (I may have my physics laws a bit mixed, but I think it still stands.)
“The social networks are very much like the block party or beer bash. Unwanted interlopers are sure to arrive and wreak intended havoc,” a New York Times blogger opined about the subject. “The social network generation is finding out the hard way that having an open party is fun while it lasts. Unfortunately, the unwanted and uninvited dregs who arrive just keep coming back, long after the party is over.”
The blogger’s analogy is a little booze-laced. But it’s still apt. So keep your eyes open you social networking masses. The last thing you want is to have some techy ne’er-do-well digitally throwing up on your fun.
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