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[February 22, 2013]

Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest user information exposed in hack attack

Feb 22, 2013 (Los Angeles Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Tumblr, Pinterest and Twitter have become the latest in a long list of companies to be hacked. And this time, some user information appears to have been compromised.

The three companies announced that some users' email addresses may have been exposed by a hacker who was able to access them by hacking the computer system for a third-party customer service company, Zendesk. The company provides customer service software for the three social networks and thousands of other companies.

According to Wired, some users' phone numbers may have also been revealed.

"We're incredibly disappointed that this happened and are committed to doing everything we can to make certain it never happens again," Zendesk said in a statement announcing the hack Thursday night. "We've already taken steps to improve our procedures and will continue to build even more robust security systems. We will continue to diligently work with our affected customers to mitigate any impact." Following Zendesk's statement, the three social media companies sent out emails to users they believe were affected by the hack.

"We're really sorry this happened, and we'll keep working with law enforcement and our vendors to ensure your information is protected," Pinterest said in its email.

The latest attack comes shortly after both Facebook and Apple revealed that some of its employees' computers had been compromised by a hack. It's unclear if the attack on Zendesk is related to the one on Apple and Facebook.

This also appears to be the second notable attack on Twitter since the start of 2013. The short-message social network last month announced that an attack on its system may have led to as many as 250,000 users' accounts becoming compromised. It's also unclear if those two attacks are related.

___ (c)2013 the Los Angeles Times Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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