Twitter and Facebook Hacked Today

Twitter reported on its blog that they were attacked by an unknown group of hackers forcing the site to be locked down for several hours. Cnet reported that Twitter began having issues around 6 A.M PDT.

By 6:43 A.M PDT Twitter posted this on their blog:

We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly.

What is a Denial of Service Attack?

A denial-of-service (DoS) attack is a means where hackers commandeer computers and flood the targeted Web site with communication requests, forcing it shut down and reset. While a DoS attack is underway, the Web site either becomes unavailable to legitimate users or responds so slowly that the Web site times out and becomes unusable.

Symantec Symantec blogger Marian Merritt further explains:

It’s often the case that DDoS attacks come from computers infected with bots, turning them into zombie computers doing their cybercriminal’s bidding.

In other words especially if you have a Windows-based OS, make sure you have updated anti-malware software and download all Microsoft patches.

At around 7:50 A.M PDT, Twitter updated users on the it’s status:

…(Twitter is) defending against a denial-of-service attack and will update status again shortly.

At about 9:47 AM PDT, Users were informed when trying to log in:

As we recover, users will experience some longer load times and slowness. This includes timeouts to API clients. We’re working to get back to 100% as quickly as we can.

-this according to the L.A.Times

There is no knowledge of who the attacker(s) is/are but things were back to normal by 12:00 PM PDT.

Facebook apparently suffered a similar attack.

Here’s the latest from CNN: