Associated Press Twitter account hack raises security questions

Chaos onWall StreetTuesday because of a single tweethad us asking computer experts Wednesday if the rest of Twitter users are safe.

The Associated Press posted a tweet that stated two explosions went offatthe White House and President Barack Obama was injured.

Later, it was discovered that the AP account had been hacked and that the tweet was fake.

Starting about 1 p.m. Tuesday,stocks plummeted for15minutes.

University of Missouri internetexpert Greg Emanuel says anyone could be acyber-victim.

“Technology is a necessity now,” Emanual said. “Everybody uses it, we all have it, we all need it. It’s a part of ourday-to-daylife. Anything going across the airways is susceptible to attacks.”

The AP said a computerusesalgorithms for stock trading and that is how the disaster happened so quickly.

“Sometimes information ends up creating some volatility we wish we didn’thave,and I think the market will be better it sort of -the financial markets in particular,” MU economist Joe Haslag said. “We will learn from this incident and not react so quickly until it gets some clarification.”

Everyone can learn how to better protect themselves from being hacked.

Internet security experts said changingpasswords and codes as well as logging out of accounts can protect any Facebook or Twitter user.