Twishing

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What Does Twishing Mean?

Twishing is a form of phishing that is perpetrated through the social network Twitter. Phishing denotes an attempt to obtain personal information so as to steal another user’s identity. Twishing comes in the form of a brief Twitter message directing the user to a website that might spark their curiosity. Once the user logs on to the fraudulent site, the attacker can obtain personal information and use it to steal the user’s identity.

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Techopedia Explains Twishing

The term Twishing is a combination of phishing and Twitter. Twishers send ou bait and hope to trick a few naive users.

Computer security experts warn never to reveal personal information such as passwords or other identifying data on an unfamiliar website and to remember that legitimate sites such as online shopping companies or financial institutions will never ask users to reveal their pass codes. In 2009, Twitter took a big Twishing hit in which 33 accounts were hacked.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.