Twitter accounts have been hacked, perhaps unsurprisingly a 16 year old thoguht it amusing to hack into a variety of celebrity accounts and inform the world erroneously that, for example, Rich Sanchez was too stoned to go to work. Obama's also got the treatment offering $500 in oil for completing a survey. Neither Sanchez or Britney Spears suspended their accounts but one of Obama's has been. So what, well Twitter offers an easy way of sending direct updates out to followers and, from a politician's point of view can at the very least help them to lead the agenda - I note today Gordon Brown saying a big announcement on apprenticeships is pending, a way of trailing the story and getting journalists to listen and wait. But to be used they must be secure and this will raise a range of fears that an accoutn can be hi-jacked and used to ridicule the user. So Twitter, and those who run a range of similar tools, must now do a lot of work on ensuring security and communicating to users that they have little to worry about, if not the risk of use will appear too great for those in the public eye.