IT security and control firm Sophos is advising that Twitter hardens its security as a French hacker claims he broke into Twitter's internal administration system, enabling him to access the accounts of millions of Twitter users - including Barack Obama, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher and Lily Allen.

Happy May Day! Here's a selection of news from around the InterWeb that caught our eye including the spam league table, Salma Hayek's e-mail woes, anti-phishing advice, Britain's surveillance society and more...

Free magazines, legal controversy and the possibility that your mobile might be able to intercept other users SMS messages all caught our eye in the early morning madness at the weirdandbeard office...

 

Cloned camels, security threats, energy wasting spam, but at least the recession is over (according to Intel). Can we afford to shave again at weirdand beard? Here's today's brief bytes...

Afraid of heights? Scared of spiders? Snakes? Water? Don't panic. Soon, scientists may be able to wipe the memories associated with such fears from your memory, turning you from phobia freak to superhero, thanks to new drugs currently in development.

Malware specialist FireEye has uncovered a new scam by fake antivirus progam maker Vundo who have created a piece of what can only be describeds as "ransomware", which encrypts all of a user's files (.pdf, .doc, .jpg and others) on their PC and then report garbled data.

The discovery of an electronic spy network based mainly in China that has infiltrated computers from government offices around the world is just the latest form of Internet 'snooping' - but it again highlights the dangers of sureveillance via computer from hackers, criminal gangs and governments.

IT security and control firm Sophos is warning Apple Mac users to be on their guard against websites hosting malicious code designed to infect their systems. The advice follows the discovery of a new version of the OSX/RSPlug Trojan horse that is being distributed via a legitimate-looking website offering HDTV software.

Privacy campaigners are up in arms over Home Office proposals to require social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to retain details of their users' movements on the internet.

When is a thumb drive, not a thumb drive? When it's a finger drive.