The proof, Infosecurity notes, that almost anyone can get caught out with their social networking security, sent a ripple of amusement across the newswires over the weekend.
According to the CNet newswire, Wozniak seems to less then upset at the hacking of his account and was on vacation last week.
“He has, however, merrily continued tweeting. Indeed, 56 minutes ago, he appears to have had a light lunch at the Old Faithful Dining Room in Yellowstone Park”, said the newswire last Friday.
CNet quotes Wozniak as saying that he does not really use his Twitter account. “I should. It's a good thing. But it's down on my priority list and I'm too short of time", he told newswire.
“I use many passwords, as most of us do, for various reasons. Because I never took Twitter as super important, it has a weaker password than more important accounts. If it's been hacked, I'll just change the password”, he added.
Commenting on the high-profile Twitter account hack, Paul Kenyon, CEO with Avector, the privileged security management specialist, said that Wozniak – who is keynoting next month's IP Expo event in London – has been raising his profile of late and, unknown to many, is still officially on the payroll with Apple.
“This latest Twitter hacking incident is pretty standard for a low-level hack of the social media micro-blogging service. The danger is that less tech-savvy Twitter users might click through the attached link and potentially infect their computers”, he said.
“Judging from the media reports on the hack, it sounds as though Mr Wozniak has been on vacation, and this may explain why one of computers has apparently been click-jacked, perhaps a laptop in use on a public access WiFi connection where man-in-the-middle attacks can be a problem”, he added.
Kenyon went on to say that he suspects that - as one of the co-founders of Apple – Wozniak probably has the good fortune to earn more than $781 a day, and is also probably a little embarrassed over the hack, although his tweets give no indication of this.
“What this incident – and other high-profile Twitter account hacks – illustrate, is that it is alarmingly easy to have an Internet account hacked and, whilst this particular crack is mildly amusing, the messages sent by the hacker could have been a lot darker”, he explained.
Avecto, he says, has come across instances where corporate accounts have been hacked for profit, usually where intellectual property or similar corporate espionage, is taking place, and in the space of a few seconds, a financial loss to the company concerned is triggered.
“The sad reality”, says Kenyon, “is that cybercriminals and corporate rivals can – and do – take advantage of slight weaknesses on the security front and in no time unauthorised people are able to enter the account and access all manner of personal and corporate data.”
“And where company intellectual property issues are involved – as Mr Wozniak will undoubtedly confirm when he gets back from vacation – you simply can't be too careful. Knowledge isn't just power any more - it is also about corporate revenues”, he said.