Twitter, the microblogging phenom that even Oprah is avidly using these days, confirmed tonight that it was hacked for the second time this year, by someone in France who gained administrative access through an employee’s account
“Personal information that may have been viewed on these 10 individual accounts includes email address, mobile phone number (if one was associated with the account), and the list of accounts blocked by that user,” blogged Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. “We have personally contacted Twitter users whose accounts were compromised via this unauthorized access.”
Put another way, Stone evidently spent the afternoon on the phone with a number of celebrities, or, more likely, numerous celeb staffers.
Earlier today, the hacker, posted numerous screenshots of the account activities of singer Lily Allen, actor Ashton Kutcher, pop princess Britney Spears, and President Barack Obama, whose not terribly personal Twitter account was also infiltrated back in January — when another hacker gained administrative access via an employee’s account.
Twitter, estimated to have five to 10 million users, has raised $55 million from a long list of investors, including Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures, and Charles River Ventures; its angel investors include Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen.