Recently some of the high-profile social media websites were under the attack of anonymous hackers. One of the popular social networking website was Twitter which was attacked couple of times. Recently Associated Press twitter account was hacked and a provocative message was posted concerning white house and US president Obama. The news caused great panic among twitter users and it also led to steep drop of 143 points at Dow Jones. Though these types of attack has become common but it can cause lot of trouble and can be unfavorable to anyone’s brand. If ever you or your business fall prey to such an attack then you need to stay calm and do the below mentioned things and see to it that it never happen again.
1. Get back the control of your Account
Once you know that your account has been compromised the first thing you need to do is get the control over the twitter account by changing the password immediately. If your account is suspended on account of the breach then you can get in touch with the twitter support team by filling a form. You account could be the result of your use of third party apps and hence reviewing those apps once again for security reason works in your advantage. Remove the application that you are not familiar with and stick to those which you trust.
2. Remove unwanted tweets and inform your followers
After gaining control of your twitter account you need to delete all the tweets posted by the hacker. If the hacker has caused damage through tweeting harmful tweets delete it and inform your followers about the same. Use other social media channels to inform users that your account was compromised, use facebook, your website, linkedin etc. This will not reverse the damage but definitely reduce its impact.
3. Check out the security of your account
Once you have regained control of your account, you need to review the security of your account. Check out the password you have used. Use strong but easy to remember password. Do you access twitter on other devices like smart phone, tablet or laptop? If yes, then do check for the security update on those devices? If the personal devices you are using is not update with latest security patches then update it right away. Taking care of security of your devices reduces of such instances.
4. Continuous Training in online security
Hackers will continue to attack vulnerable account no matter what. So it is always advisable to train the person who manages company’s twitter account or for that matter it is also useful to keep yourself updated if you are handling it. Phishing attacks are one of the most common forms of twitter attack and through proper training it can be avoided.
