French police detain alleged hacker who attacked Obama’s Twitter account

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French police detain alleged Twitter hacker

PARIS — A 25-year-old who allegedly hacked the Twitter accounts of numerous well-known figures, including Britney Spears and President Barack Obama, has been detained, French police said Wednesday.

The suspect, who goes by the online pseudonym “Hacker Croll,” was caught following a joint operation with the FBI and detained for questioning Tuesday in the Puy-de-Dome region of central France, they said.

Police say the FBI contacted them after discovering in July that someone had managed to get access to confidential information after hacking into the Twitter system and passing for an administrator. The suspect then posted some information online, police said.

The suspect, whose real name was not released, had a history of minor Internet-related infractions, police said. Based on his initial statements, it was the challenge, not money, that motivated him, they said.

The LCI television news network reported that police released the suspect after two days of questioning. The France 24 TV channel reported that he was to appear June 24 at the court in Clermond-Ferrand, the main city in the Puy-de-Dome region.

The reports could not be immediately confirmed. Police did not return phone calls after the reports aired.

Korben.info, a French Web site on new media, reported on July 14, 2009 that it had been contacted by “Hacker Croll,” who said he had managed to access e-mails of Twitter employees including those of co-founder Evan Williams and his wife.

Twitter has been the target of several attacks, and hackers have posted information online or sent fake messages.

In a January 2009 attack against Twitter, a Twitter support staffer’s account was compromised using a password-guessing program. The hacker got administrative access to the site. The Twitter feeds for Barack Obama, Britney Spears and other celebrities were used to send out bogus messages. A similar attack occurred in May.