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'Follow' Hack Causes Twitter Pandemonium

Privacy gap closed, but not before some opportunistic hijinks

By M. Morris,  Newser Staff

Posted May 10, 2010 2:45 PM CDT

(Newser) – If your Twitter account lists no followers or follow-ees, thank the happy-go-lucky iPhone acquirers at Gizmodo, who tipped the tech world to a vulnerability this morning. It's no longer working, but the web interface allowed the attention-starved to type "accept" and the Twitter name of any account, thereby gaining a follower—and the attendant direct-messaging capability. "I have no idea how a hole this large could be left in a service as popular as Twitter, nor do I understand why it hasn't been shut yet," wrote John Herrman.

Well, it has now. "The Following 0 issue is temporary and will be resolved," co-founder Biz Stone tweeted. " We’re now working to rollback all abuse of the bug, " says the Twitter blog. Among the affected: Conan O'Brien, who famously follows only one person but at one point was listed as following more than 300.

Following and Followers counts both at zero.
"Following" and "Followers" counts both at zero.   (?badosa)
Attendees mingle during a break at the first annual Chirp Twitter developers' conference, April 14, 2010, in San Francisco.
Attendees mingle during a break at the first annual "Chirp" Twitter developers' conference, April 14, 2010, in San Francisco.   (Getty Images)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 8 comments
Cat-Lover
May 10, 2010 10:08 PM CDT
What's Twitter?
OG_Travis
May 10, 2010 9:15 PM CDT
Right....it's gizmo's fault that twitter had a security problem....
Fondue
May 10, 2010 7:47 PM CDT
OK, I'm officially officially done with them!
 

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