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Twitter may introduce two step authentication after recent hacking incidents

Twitter may introduce two-step authentication after recent hacking incidents

By Surbhi Chawla | Updated: 25 April 2013 11:48 IST

The micro-blogging website Twitter is looking at introducing two-step authentication after a spate of high-profile hacking incidents.

According to a news report by Wired.com, Twitter is already in process of testing this two-step security solution internally and will be looking to offer this to users shortly. There is no exact word on when the micro-blogging website will be rolling out this new feature.

Wired has also mentioned that Twitter had posted a job advertisement in February to solicit engineers that will be engaged in developing this system.

The two-step authentication is expected to help Twitter in combatting hacking attempts. Recently, many users, especially celebrities and high-profile organisations have reported about their Twitter accounts be hacked. Just this Tuesday, the Twitter account of Associated Press had been compromised. The hacker had tweeted through the AP account a false news regarding bombing at White House and President Obama being injured.

As a result of this tweet the stock markets in US tanked and a whopping $136.5 billion were wiped off in a matter of minutes.

On Monday, FIFA President Sepp Blatter's Twitter account was hacked and a series of bizarre tweets saying he was stepping down and was involved in corruption had been posted. This news spread like wildfire and FIFA had to issue a press statement informing that some FIFA accounts, including @SeppBlatter and @fifaworldcup, had been hacked.

In February, Twitter had to reset the passwords of over 250,000 accounts, after hackers broke into its systems.

So this two-step authentication system could indeed be a good idea and help in adding another layer of security, which will help in preventing such attacks. However, it is not a fix it all solution and Twitter will need to develop more comprehensive solutions even in the future to safeguard the interests of its users.

Twitter had announced in March 2013 that it has more than 200 million active users sending over 400 million tweets every day.

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