Earlier this week Techcrunch ran a story about co-founder EV Williams ( From Lincoln Nebraska but never gives a shout out) got hax0red. His Gmail account (and Google docs) got owned and other stuff… turns out they also had server passwords with the password of….. password. Total alleged things the hacker gained access to:
* the complete list of employees
* their food preferences
* their credit card numbers
* some confidential contracts with Nokia, Samsung, Dell, AOL, Microsoft and others
* direct emails with web and showbizz personalities
* phone numbers
* meeting reports (very informatives)
* internal document templates
* time sheet
* applicant resumes
* salary grid (time for me to move..lol)
Yesterday (7-14-09) Mike Arrington posted that they had received over 300 confidential twitter internal documents and would be releasing them to the public on Techcrunch. Many other sites are also claiming to have received the same documents but will not post them for ethical reasons (which i think means they just want to seem important but didn’t really get them).
After the post Twitter users bombarded Techcrunch with pleads not to release the documents and it was a trending topic on twitter all day today. Mike then posted a response Today (7-15-09) about what they planned to do with the confidential Twitter docs and specifically on ethics. To quote:
We are always in the delicate position of balancing what’s right for the community with publishing insider news that helped build this site into what it is today. We don’t sit around and republish press releases, we break big stories.
This is one of the reasons I love TechCrunch and its aggressive journalism. They don’t fuck around.
Later today Techcrunch revealed the first of many to come of the Twitter internal documents. This one is the growth and financial sheet. While its a updated sheet its very interesting to see where the co-founders thought the site would be at in terms of growth and revenue. Mike also leaves us with a cliff hanger for tomorrow revealing twitters original idea to monetize the website.
I personally cant wait to see these docs as they keep coming on TechCrunch.
- Comment Likes 
- Comment Dislikes
August 20, 2009 at 12:56 pm
This could be a good thing if it is in fact true. If there is something fishy going on at twitter hopefully Tech Crunch will snoop it out.
July 31, 2009 at 1:57 am
That Is BaD Think and Crazy Work
July 22, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Гуглил сейчас в поисках доклада, наткнулся на ваш блог и не удержался, чтобы не скопи-пастить пару постов. Ну и этот взял.
P.S. Интересно будет видеть в списке использованной литературы ссылку на блог ))))
P.P.S. Домашняя страничка моя, ето не спам
July 21, 2009 at 7:08 pm
It always cracks me up that people use the same password for ALL their online accounts. Just set up a simple login site and get people to sign up and provide an email, user id, and password to setup their account. I bet that 9 times out of 10 you will be able to log into their email using the password provided on your site.
Always use a different password for each site cause you never know how honest the people hosting the site may be.
July 18, 2009 at 7:25 am
What is the legal ramifications of TechCrunch publishing confidential stuff that has been obtained via illicit means? Hats off to them for sharing though!
July 17, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I think this is all one big giant way if getting traffic, I wonder if twitter will sue tech crunch…..
July 16, 2009 at 11:55 am
No, I haven’t missed it. I’ve spent WAY too much time reading all the comments and Arrington’s responses. WAY too much.
July 16, 2009 at 10:21 am
Can anyone say “PR Stunt”. I think this was dreamed up over a few beers between Mike Arrington and Evan Williams… Nice move fellas.
July 16, 2009 at 8:15 am
wtf.. who uses password as the password.. haven’t they ever seen the movie hackers?
July 16, 2009 at 6:06 am
Just visited techcruch. And oh thwy are on the homepage. Is is ethical to publish what they have read? r even what they have only known? What do you think guys here?
July 16, 2009 at 5:52 am
I can’t believe they left the password as ‘password’ you are more than asking for it!
July 16, 2009 at 5:24 am
If they do post this information I hope Ev sues Tech crunch so they can see who gave them the information. I think it was great that Ev said they got hacked that is half the battle there. They need to take the steps to secure this information so no one does this again. Greg Ellison
July 16, 2009 at 4:06 am
This is crazy. Hackers rule the world nowadays?
July 16, 2009 at 3:03 am
Tolle Sache, dass man hier so frei schreiben kann.
July 16, 2009 at 3:02 am
Ummm…isn’t hacking illegal, and if so, aren’t there also laws against possession of stolen goods? As such, is TC opening itself up to litigation for knowingly releasing information it knows was obtained illegally?
July 16, 2009 at 12:14 am
That’s not cool!
July 15, 2009 at 10:57 pm
By the way, if you haven’t deposited that check yet I’d be glad to cash it for you. For a small fee of course … you see I am a Nigerian Prince and my fader left me millons …and, well u know the rest HA!
July 15, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Techcrunch was bombarded with requests – the main reason is their food preferences. People are afraid this info is going to become public.
July 15, 2009 at 10:53 pm
HA! Twitter is gaming the gamers. Its an old Hollywood stunt, OOPS! Someone seen my panties. Come on, do you really believe Twitter would F’up that bad? I smell conspiracy between Twitter and TechCrunch to boost their subscription numbers …just a tiny bit more. Where is Oliver Stone when you need him?
July 15, 2009 at 10:50 pm
I very happy to be able to read your article and I feel lucky because I can read the article you, thank you this article opened my mind about the internet more, thank you this article is very excellent, successful
July 15, 2009 at 10:35 pm
I’ve always wondered why hackers hack? just for the fun of it? Unless he stole money or something i guess just for the thrill.
July 16, 2009 at 2:28 am
I think it’s a 50/50 split. Half do it for the technical challenge, break in look around, go away – the other half are frustrated (i.e. shit) programmers out to prove how clever they are. No prizes for guessing what this hacker is about?
July 15, 2009 at 10:28 pm
You never think you’re going to get hacked until you do get hacked.
July 15, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Time will reveal everything … let the two days passed and we will come to know about everything.
July 15, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Pretty interesting. That’s amazing how much info hackers get just by hacking email accounts.
Unless it is a linkbait by twitter. lol
July 15, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Strange that such a huge and renowned service can be such vulnerable to Hacker attacks. Are they so poorly prepared for this?
A look at the techcrunch report shows that they were aiming billions in revenue. An organization targetting billions in revenue, has such a poor infrastructure. Difficult to digest!
July 15, 2009 at 9:42 pm
My question is, why does twitter have the credit card numbers of their employees?
July 15, 2009 at 10:25 pm
May be twitter have provided them from Company’s accounts … anything to retain the talent … remember.
July 15, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Wow, talk about FAIL. The server password was “password”……