Following this week’s embarrassing hack attack on AP’s Twitter account, security analysts are calling for Twitter to get serious on user accounts that serve exceptionally serious purposes.
On Tuesday, AP’s twitter account erroneously tweeted that an explosion occurred at the White House, injuring the President of the United States. The false tweet sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting and sparked panic and scattering in newsrooms across the world.
In response to these all-too-common hack jobs in social media, Twitter is now believed to be working on a “two-step security solution” that is “undergoing internal testing” before launching publicly, Daily Deal Media reported Wednesday after knowledgeable sources confirmed the plans to Wired.
According to DDM, the two-step authentication security measure will require two layers of identity verification, such as a password along with a temporary code.
“In my opinion, this is overdue for Twitter, especially for verified accounts,” Chester Wisniewski of the Internet security firm Sophos tells NBC News. “If you’re so darn important that Twitter is going to verify you, they have some responsibility to make sure that it’s you when you tweet.”
As of this writing, it remains to be seen just how soon Twitter will formally introduce this added layer of much-needed security.