Image via WikipediaWhen White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs admitted his Twitter account had been compromised, a host of feelings popped up for me. Having had one of my websites hacked a while back, I thought well if a site as huge as Twitter could have left its guard down what had happened to me wasn’t that bad. It could happen to anyone. The thought of such “huge” people as Gibbs and Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown‘s wife Sarah getting hacked goes to show how wide spread technology crime has become. Still, don’t you find the media’s attempts to describe technology a bit funny? I do. In a New York Times article — Twitter Is Hacked Tuesday Morning – NYTimes.com — the writer states:
I love that description “rebel-Web parlance.” ROTFLMAO.
The article also suggest a mafia-like cybercrime organization, which elicits in me visions of Guido the Geek completing a hit on Twitter account holders. Is there really a “cybercrime organization?” Well, sort of. There are a few groups who’s sole purpose is to steal identities. That’s what the Justice Department‘s division of Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property define as cybercrime organizations. If there is a Cybercrime Mob, is there also a “Godfather?”
I know its not funny to those who were infected. The matter might appear less humorous to me if I’d visited twitter that day. Yes, I have a twitter account, but rarely post any tweets simply because I can’t write sentences that short. And, by the time I think of something to say, the subject is too old to comment on. I also don’t read tweets off of the website. Like many, I use an app (I prefer NAMBU) to keep up with those I found interesting enough to follow. However, I can go weeks without even firing it up. But, now that I know there’s a cybercrime mob, you can bet I’m going to follow @guidothegeek so I can keep up with them.
