After AP Hack, Twitter Finally Ramps Up Security

The fake AP tweet about White House explosions that sent the Dow Jones diving yesterday was just the latest in a long series of high-profile Twitter hacks, but the company is finally taking steps to make accounts harder to hack, Wired reports. The two-step authentication security measure, which is already offered by the likes of Facebook and Google, requires users logging in from a new location to provide both a password and a piece of data sent to an already registered device.

Twitter advertised for engineers to build a two-step security solution earlier this year after its own systems were hacked and 250,000 accounts were compromised, CNN reports. Other recent high-profile Twitter feeds to have been hacked include NPR, Jeep,and Burger King, which proclaimed it had been sold to McDonald's. Since the attacks seem to be happening with increasing frequency, "it seems like it would behoove the company to get something out now, even if imperfect," writes Wired's Mat Honan. (More Twitter stories.)