A hacker has accessed and distributed more than 300 sensitive
internal documents from microblogging site Twitter.
According to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, an employee's
personal e-mail account was hacked a month ago, which led to a
hacker accessing the employee's Google Apps account containing the
documents.
"This attack had nothing to do with any vulnerability in Google
Apps, which we continue to use. This is more about Twitter being in
enough of a spotlight that folks who work here can become targets,"
Stone said in a
blog posting.
"This isn't about any flaw in web apps, it speaks to the
importance of following good personal security guidelines, such as
choosing strong passwords," he said.
The stolen documents include a forecast of Twitter's annual
revenues until 2013 and plans for a reality television show based
on Twitter called Final Tweet.
News site
TechCrunch was a recipient of the documents and has already
published information on the
TV show and projected revenues.
The news has prompted speculation about what new service Twitter
is planning that it expects revenues to jump from $400,000 this
quarter to $4m in Q4.
TechCrunch is in negotiations with Twitter's lawyers over its
intention to publish a "small subset" of the documents.
These would not include documents that show floorplans and
security passcodes to get into the Twitter offices.
The news site said there is an ethical line that it would not
cross and it would not publish a vast majority of the documents.
"But a few of the documents have so much news value that we think
it is appropriate to publish them," it said.
Observers in the blogoshpere have predicted that the bold move
by TechCrunch could see it locked in prolonged legal battles with
Twitter.