Amplified security as Twitter cuts URLs short

VIP LOUNGE

CLOUD LOGIN

You are here: News > News > Amplified security as Twitter cuts URLs short

» IT Security NEWS

» 10 June 2010

Amplified security as Twitter cuts URLs short

The micro-blogging service Twitter has generated another innovative feature that is created in such a way that it can enclose and, at the same time, abbreviate the links being added on the posts of users. This is the company’s newest attempt on developing their website’s security. In addition, this will assist in gathering more data, which are related to the links posted by the users of Twitter.

Security enhanced by scanning links

This new protective method works by cutting down and scanning the URLs, which are added by the users on their Tweets via direct or APIs and also other mobile handsets.

The vice president of communications at this popular micro-blogging service Sean Garrett wrote in his most recent blog post the time when this up-to-the-minute security feature will be set in motion. Garrett said that, according to the company’s plans, this system will be started on this coming summer and Twitter believed that this will very much help in giving more information about the URLs on the Tweets.

Comprehensible data will be available for users

Garrett added that their ultimate goal is to eliminate the deficiency in the knowledge of users about the links that they see on the updates. This is to give the exact information about the URL and the precise location to which the user will be taken once he or she clicks on the given link.

Also, the administrators of the service desire to have direct control over the links shared by various individuals on their website by directing these via the new security method.

The aim for 20-character-links

According to the statement made on the Google Groups post by the technical lead on Twitter’s Platform Team, Raffi Krikorian, the micro-blogging service will limit all the links to 20 characters only with the use of their newest security feature.

He stated that the exact number of characters of the posted links is going to be 20 characters at all times. Also, the link-wrapping technique will assist in classifying their 140 characters.

Sending a status, which contains more than 140 characters, will become more than possible when the URLs undergo the link wrapping process. In the end, the characters will be lessened once the text has been converted.

But then, this was changed when Krinkorian answered a query posted on the Google forum. In this post, he changed the number of characters from 20 to 19.

Know more about SecPoint by checking out any of the three links: About SecPoint, SecPoint Awards, and SecPoint News.