How I Accessed Your Technorati Account
Recently I’ve discovered that I can enter Technorati as someone else with absolutely no effort at all.
Those of you who use WordPress are aware of the Incoming Links section on the dashboard, and that when you click on the “more” link you are taken to your account in Technorati. Well, when I click on it, I’m taken to someone else’s account.
To be clear, this means that I am signed on as that person and have access to everything in that person’s account: blogs, bio, password. If I wanted to, I can lock these people out of their accounts by changing their password.
Scary, huh?
Naturally, I was concerned over this so I paid a visit to Technorati’s forum to post a topic. The title of the post is “Technorati: You have a security breach!” You’d think that with a title like that, sirens would be going off. Nope, at least not as of this writing.
And get this: if you take a look at the post in the forum, you’ll note the post was first started by MRO74. That was me who typed it, but it’s not my account. Then came the reply from Trizeke; also me, but not my account.
Then the third time I returned, I posted a response again, but this time it was davincim. Now, that’s me!
Can anybody else repeat this? At the very least I recommend you visit your account more frequently than usual to see if everything’s okay. I don’t imagine changing your password is going to protect you because I didn’t need one to get in these people’s accounts. 
[tags]technorati, security, breach[/tags]
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About the Author: Mark Sierra is an online entrepreneur and web publisher. As the owner of StarFrost Media, he continues to add blogs and products to his online portfolio designed to help inform readers on software and blogging, teach them to be more productive, and even learn how to make money online.
Bush Mackel | Jul 14, 2007 | Reply
Oh geez. It’s too late for me to be hearing stuff like this!
Mark | Jul 14, 2007 | Reply
Don’t worry — I’ll keep an eye on things.
Brown Baron | Jul 15, 2007 | Reply
That’s definitely strange
I wonder if they’ll respond to your thread on the forum.
Mark | Jul 15, 2007 | Reply
Well, they must be taking a vacation because so far no one from Technorati has responded.
Grace | Jul 15, 2007 | Reply
I’ve never heard of stuff like this!
Maybe Technorati just doesn’t have very good support. 
Mark | Jul 15, 2007 | Reply
The funny thing is, about a week ago I posted something on their forums asking why the incoming links section of WP wasn’t working and if they could do something to fix it. Within 24 hours the problem was resolved and I could start seeing the links I had missed for weeks.
But with this topic, they just don’t seem to get it.
Snoskred | Jul 16, 2007 | Reply
That is very scary news! I have to admit, I’ve been losing faith in them for a while. They lost all my favorites for a couple of days a while back, and I have about 200 so I wasn’t very impressed.
Snoskred
http://snoskred.blogspot.com/
Mark | Jul 16, 2007 | Reply
Maybe they took the weekend off and will be back fresh today. I’ve visited a few more times and I’m still showing up as different users.
Brown Baron | Jul 16, 2007 | Reply
Mark .. maybe your other personalities have something to do with it
Mark | Jul 16, 2007 | Reply
I think you may be onto something. Guess I’ll need to get a web cam after all to record my actions and make sure when I’m asleep, I really AM asleep.
Mike | Jul 16, 2007 | Reply
This is freakin’ ugly. I just checked your post on the forum. Still no replies from Technorati. Silly. You’d think they’d want to be all over something like this and get it fixed.
Mark | Jul 16, 2007 | Reply
Yep, it’s sad really. Let me know if you can login too. Maybe I’m the only one with the secret key.
Sharon | Aug 3, 2007 | Reply
IMO, Technorati’s performance has seriously deteriorated since their big upgrade a few months ago. I have to contact support on a weekly basis to update my blog postings as automatic and manual pings work infrequently and blog reactions routinely do not update my authority. They are alienating their core audience with the performance issues, erratic support and poor communication. And now a security breach that has not been resolved 3 weeks later? I do hope someone else will step in and provide a similar service in a more reliable way as John Crickett discusses in this post: http://www.businessopportunitiesandideas.co.uk/279/build-a-better-technorati
Mark | Aug 3, 2007 | Reply
Hi Sharon,
I’ve heard others mention the trouble with pings not working for a while now too. Mine seem to be updating all right, but there was a time that my incoming links in my WP dashboard wasn’t updating (or maybe that’s related?).
Anyway, thanks so much for stopping by!
Brown Baron | Aug 4, 2007 | Reply
Hey buddy, check your page on technorati. Take a look at your rank hehe. They’re having a little glitch. If you’re not able to see it, take a look at my blog, I wrote about their little glitch .. with screenshots of course.
Mark | Aug 4, 2007 | Reply
Woo-hoo! My phone is ringing off the wall, people are wanting to get in touch with me like never before!