Twitter Inc unveiled technology to boost security for its users,
following a spate of attacks on accounts of prominent media outlets
including the Associated Press, the Financial Times and The Onion.
The
micro blogging site, which transmits some 400 million messages a day,
said on Wednesday that it had begun rolling out an optional "login
verification" service to thwart hackers seeking to hijack accounts with
stolen passwords.
Security experts welcomed the move as a
positive step toward securing a service that is widely used by
consumers, political activists, advertisers and news outlets around the
globe to quickly exchange information.
Twitter had come under
fire over the past year for failing to offer such an option, which is
known as two-factor authentication, amid a surge in breaches of
high-profile accounts. That criticism intensified in April after a fake
tweet about a non-existent White House explosion sent from the
Associated Press account briefly roiled U.S. financial markets.
"It's
been a long time coming," said Jeremiah Grossman, chief technology
officer of White Hat Security. "It's not going to solve all problem, but
it's a step in the right direction."
When users log in to
Twitter via a web browser, they must confirm their identity by entering a
six-digit code that Twitter delivers to their smartphones. To access the service through applications for PCs and smartphones,
users must use an automatically generated temporary password for each of
the programs.
