As you may or may not have noticed, Twitter.com disappeared for about an hour last night. Their DNS records were apparently compromised by someone claiming to be the (previously unheard-of) “Iranian Cyber Army”. The DNS entry, which essentially tells your web browser where to find individual sites, was apparently changed by some mischief makers to point to the wrong place. Some users saw a message from the “Army”, while others simply couldn’t access the site. It was back to normal in an hour or so.
It is unknown whether the “Army” acted in response to my repeated exclamations that “Twitter Must Die“.
It’s not the first time Twitter has gone down, though it’s certainly the most spectacular. Unfortunately, the crew at Mashable.com, who (as we’ve repeatedly noted, are obsessed with Twitter), reacted to the outage with Hindenburg-style hysterics.
Ben Parr, Mashable’s intrepid co-editor and repeatedly failed entrepreneur according to his own web site, breathlessly reported that Twitter had been hacked (a statement he later tweaked for accuracy purposes). Parr stated:
For one of the world’s most popular websites to be compromised and taken down, even for a few minutes, is a big problem. This type of thing should never happen, regardless of who is to blame.
You tell ‘em Ben! This should never happen! Twitter should never make the rookie mistakes you made with your own start-ups.
In his follow-up piece, Parr grew far more hysterical (and repeated the inaccurate, irresponsible “hacking” charge). Get a load of this:
We’re still in shock over what has just transpired. Twitter was just hacked.
…
Little compares to what has happened tonight. Even if it was a third-party DNS attack, Twitter still gets the black eye.
This is unacceptable for one of the world’s top 20 most-visited websites. There needs to be accountability for this situation (no matter if it’s within Twitter or within a third party), and a more detailed explanation is warranted. Twitter also needs to find a way to assure that this never happens again.
This is a tragedy beyond compare! It is unacceptable! Something must be done!
To their credit, some more intelligent Mashable readers called out Parr for over-reacting and being absurdly dramatic. But most of his readers joined right in:
Who knows if the hackers got our passwords and personal information?
I’m thinking about deleting my Twitter after this….It seems so unsafe now!
Do these people have all my info???
What will I do with out Twitter?
Can’t connect either from venezuela… There’s a hole in my heart and is killing me forever (8).. and is only being there for 30 min now =|,
I am having withdrawal symptoms already. Twitter down, not good :[
God Damn those fuckers, and Twitter has got to do something about the God Damn security on its website… damn it I am pissed off
PRAISE JESUS. TWITTER’S BACK.
Ben, you and your readers need to get outside and get some fresh air. You’ll feel better, I promise.
