Twitter

Hackers allegedly broke into the Twitter account of singer Justin Bieber, sending a less-than-flattering message to his 19 million fans.

"19 million my ass. #biebermyballs," read the message, with computer security firm Sophos saying the tweet was quickly deleted.   

While the attack was certainly more embarrasing than anything else, Sophos has pointed out that had the attackers offered a malware laden link baiting 19 million followers with free concert tickets for example, this could have been a very different story indeed. 

A group of 13 individuals in the United States have filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Yelp and 14 other companies, accusing them of distributing privacy invading mobile applications.

The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction against such data collection and the destruction of all personal data collected by mobile application vendors to date. The plaintiffs describe themselves in the complaint as users of Apple iPhone and users of Android powered handsets.

Twitter has snapped up Posterous, a blogging platform started in 2008 and known for its slick digital media sharing interface. The value of the deal is unconfirmed however it is believed that all staff will transfer over to Twitter. 

These days if you are a hardened political revolutionary, you’re just as likely to be a computer geek as someone who gets shoved around by cops at a street protest.

That’s largely thanks to the rise of Anonymous, a brand of hacktivism that has also taken Brazil by storm over the last year.

A prominent Australia-based technologist is cautioning people not to put full confidence in an application he developed that intends to provide security for sending private messages on Twitter.

The application, called CrypTweet, was released on Monday, but at least two security and privacy experts have concluded it has major security holes.

Someone's having a bit of fun on Twitter this weekend, but Microsoft doesn't seem to be laughing that much. Earlier this weekend, a Twitter profile page was created someone who said he was Steven Sinofsky, the current development lead on Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system.

A Richmond police officer is facing criticism and anger Monday for a Twitter comment he made about Internet hackers.

Angry posts on the Facebook pages of the Richmond Police Department and the Contra Costa Times are criticizing the officer for his Jan. 26 tweet about a hacker attack on the Ultimate Fighting Championship website.

Google is not holding up its "end of the bargain" with customer privacy, according to noted security researcher Moxie Marlinspike.

Marlinspike, who now works for Twitter having sold his mobile security firm Whisper Systems to the micro-blogging firm in 2011, said Google's recent changes to privacy were not "fair."

There are often concerns how our personal data is protected as we rely on the internet and our cell phones more than ever. There are often security breaches with hackers gaining access to various websites, and now Twitter erupts as O2 is accused of sharing user’s phone numbers.

O2 customers reacted furiously this morning after it emerged that when they visit a website via their smartphone, the carrier sends the site their phone number. This serious security flaw means that any malicious website can get hold of your number and use it with a phishing attack or other scam.

Microblogging site Twitter has acquired Dasient, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of spam and malware protection services, for an undisclosed sum.

“Effective immediately, we will be bringing our technology, tools, and team to the revenue engineering team at Twitter”, Dasient wrote Monday on its blog.