Anthony Weiner Twitter hack? What he should have done.
| Los Angeles
The line 鈥淚 got hacked鈥� has become the latest political fig leaf for social media mistakes.
It has emerged again, trotted out by New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner after a suggestive photo was sent from his personal Twitter account.
Hacking happens often enough that there should be a well-known, universal response 鈥� but so far, one has not emerged. And in this helter-skelter approach to security, untold volumes of information remain vulnerable, notes security expert David Koretz. 鈥淭here has been a rush to move everything online,鈥� from political communications to private finance, he says. Without an equal push for security in the digital sphere, he says, 鈥渨e are at risk 鈥� not just in the way we communicate, but in everything we do online.鈥�
So what should you do if you think your account has been hacked?
鈥淚f [Representative Weiner] really was hacked, that would fall under federal cyber crimes or wire-tapping laws, and it would be intra-state,鈥� says Mr. Koretz, CEO of Mykonos Software, a vendor that secures websites and applications. 鈥淵our next stop would be the FBI, if you believe it鈥檚 domestic.鈥�
Of course, it always helps to be a national figure. Politicians have more resources when it comes to digital transgressions, notes Patrick Kerley, senior digital strategist at Levick Strategic Communications. 鈥淎 congressman has more access than an average person, and would reasonably be expected to take immediate steps 鈥� whether it鈥檚 the FBI or the Capitol Police.鈥�
"If someone stole the letterhead of a public figure, that would be fraud," notes David Mercer, a former deputy finance director of the Democratic National Committee. Sending a digital message under their name is no less criminal, he says.
The first move a public figure should make is to determine how far the breach has gone, Mr. Mercer says. 鈥淭his has the potential to harm anyone or anything else in the system.鈥�
If you鈥檝e been hacked, the thing not to do, says Koretz, is what Weiner did. 鈥淚 would not hire a private investigator, because they wouldn鈥檛 have access to Twitter鈥檚 back-end systems or be able to do the kind of forensics to get to the bottom of how it really happened,鈥� he says. Hiring a private team, Koretz adds, 鈥渋s really more about smoke and mirrors than it is about tracking a hacker.鈥�
The move suggests 鈥渁 desire to control the information that might come from an investigation,鈥� says Paul Levinson, author of 鈥淣ew New Media.鈥� Someone who really wants to get to the bottom of a crime would be more likely to go to law enforcement, or simply to the help function on a website, says Mr. Levinson.
But the help function tactic, he notes, is fraught with its own challenges.
Penny Sansevieri, an instructor at New York University, says she ran into problems trying to follow Twitter鈥檚 own protocol for hacking. A spammer sent out a single tweet from her account, triggering an account shutdown.
鈥淚 went back and forth with [the support team] for about ten days,鈥� she says. 鈥淢y goal was to find out what happened, and most important to get the site back up again,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey did not make this easy at all.鈥�
The team even emailed her a response indicating that the event had been resolved, 鈥渂ut it had not, so I had to keep going back to them.鈥� Finally, she got her account back. 鈥淭hey made me change the password twice, but they wouldn鈥檛 tell me why,鈥� she says.
Other social media sites have their own ways to make life difficult after a perceived violation, notes Ms. Sansevieri, whose small business relies on social media. One of her authors used a personal Facebook account to post business information, she says, 鈥渁nd Facebook shut it down. No matter what he did, they would not give it back.鈥�
Adds Levinson, 鈥淚t鈥檚 highly ironic that while we have companies that have become very sophisticated in their rush to be the next big social media, there is no equal rush to provide help in security issues.鈥�
鈥淚 get better tech help from Sears,鈥� he adds.
