1. He found a highly active account on twitter. Which, later turned out to be that of a Twitter employee who had access to ALL acount passwords.
2. He used an automated dictionary program that tries common English words as passwords. He ran the program all night, with no interference.
   

   Cracking the site was easy, because Twitter allowed an unlimited number of rapid-fire log-in attempts.

3. The Twitter employee used a common English word (happiness) as a password.
4. Once into the account, he could access the passwords of any account on Twitter.

GMZ says he didn’t post on the hacked accounts, but gave away the information to forum members who did.

President-Elect Barack Obama was among the most popular requests from Digital Gangster denizens, with around 20 members asking for access to the election campaign account. After resetting the password for the account, he gave the credentials to five people.

He also filled requests for access to Britney Spears’ account, as well as the official feeds for Facebook, CBS News, Fox News and the accounts of CNN correspondent Rick Sanchez and Digg founder Kevin Rose.  Other targets included additional news outlets and other celebrities. Fox won the hacker popularity contest, beating out even Obama and Spears. According to Twitter, 33 high-profile accounts were compromised in all.

You can see some of the chaos in these screenshots.

“Light in the tunnel for the music industry: revenue opportunities are increasing, illegal downloading is down.”

I really don’t think so myself, and, IF this is true, it wont be for much longer. I know for a fact that this war is still a very mixed picture. There are signs that threats of action against illegal downloaders is having an effect but there is still a lot of evidence that the music-buying (or not buying but “sharing”) public is very underwhelmed by the legal digital offerings.

The figures are pretty inconclusive anyway. Illegal downloads down from 43% of the sample last year to 39%  in 2008.

Now how do I know that IF illegal music downloads are down and there may be an increase in revenue opportunities in the music retail industry, that this will not last for long. Well let me explain. I am a member of the UK teenage group. We are a generation who are obsessed with music and with paying as little as posible. iTunes and other online music sources (that are legal) just dont have the range of music we want and so, we will look elsewhere. It is also very expensive as a teenager to by the latest CDs and keep up with the music we like on the wages/pocket cash we get due to the big, so-called, “CREDIT CRUNCH”.

We will find a way around the system, our generation is one of cunning and skill with a computer never before seen on such a large level. So can the music industry really win this fight? I wont tell you my opinion for the moment (although you may have worked it out by now :P), but I do want to hear your opinion on the situation and for those of you reading this who are not in the UK what is the situation like for you?

I want to find all of this out and release a follow-up article so post your responses and opinions in the comments and you could be in with the chance of getting mentioned in my next post!:3

Google

Over the last decade or so Google has be one of the largest of these inspiring companies with one of the biggest fan bases ever for an on-line based company. It all started when Google came out and was instantly so much better at its job as a search engine than any of its competitors, not only that but the fact that this engine was seen to be the smart, scrappy, youngster taking on the big boys.

When it arrived on the stock market it reinforced that radical image. The first line of its so-called “Owner’s Manual for Shareholders” read:

“Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.”

There was much talk at the time about Google giving the world access to information and great play was made of the company’s ethical stance, summed up with the motto “Don’t be evil.”

Over recent years Google has retained our affection by developing new tools for us all to use such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Earth to name but a few. But somehow I feel the love is no longer as it used to be, but more fading into the distance. Why?

Well that smart, scrappy, youngster has grown into a muscle-bound giant, which, in the eyes of some web developer pygmies, is now the big boy and a bit of a bully in the playground that is the world wild web. Constantly expanding, constantly taking others thunder with their “New Technology” looking to be more productive than anyone else – but radicaly falling into an advertizing monster with as much domination in some areas of the online market as Microsoft has over operating systems.

It may paint itself as a champion of open-source but, users of its “new kid on the block” were quick to ask questions about some scary terms and conditions, since amended by Google.

Google Chrome

Is Chrome just an attempt to push browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Oprea to the back of the line while Google take all the candy and dominance of yet another area of the world wild web? There is that concern, after all, Google is partnered with Mozilla so why make yet another competitor?

However, all of those happy, shiny, Googlers in their multi-coloured offices with the free muffins had better get used to one thing. The early passion of their users is fading. We’re now in a conventional, commercial relationship – and if someone else comes along offering something better, we could be going elsewhere. Fast.

I also hope to provide you with some useful tools that are often over looked or unheard of. Like what I add to Technoish? Then check out what I write when I have no boundries and head over to Brinkhusrt Design – Getting Personal.

Hope you enjoyed this post and keep your eyes out for my next article entitled Google World – a land of colour and fun.