Twitter hack caused by lack of security policies

News that Twitter has been hacked yet again comes as no surprise given the fact that many IT staff and managers are being pushed into adopting cloud computing services on a fasttrack basis, says Origin Storage, the storage systems integration specialist.

“Our observations suggest that a number of companies and their staff are being forced down the cloud computing route and are having to adapt their IT security systems on the fly.” said Andy Cordial, Origin Storage’s managing director.

“We have had concerns about this rate of change in the business sector for some time and, with all the data breaches occurring on the cloud front, it’s obvious that the chickens are now coming home to roost,” he added.

According to Cordial, this latest Twitter hack appears to be the result of the password of a company co-founder being guessable on the GoogleApps service which then allowed the hacker access to his personal information including details of his wife’s computer.

It is, he explained, a common problem in IT departments, but one that can be solved by applying a sizeable slice of common sense and adding a selection of encryption technologies plus policies to the mix.

Adding encryption to a company’s data storage – whether in the cloud or not – he said, will ensure that data at rest, as well as on the move, is protected from prying eyes.

And if a secure password best practice is applied on top of corporate encryption policies, the resultant multiple layers of defence can help prevent human error causing a faux pas like the latest Twitter hack.

“Applying effective security is all about planning and then applying that planning, backed up by a set of solid security policies with encryption at its heart,” he said.

“If Twitter had had this strategy operating at all levels of its hierarchy, rather than apparently going for user growth at any cost, it wouldn’t be in the embarrassing situation it is now,” he added.

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