Twitter troubles show fragility of social networks - USATODAY.com

The denial-of-service attacks that shut down Twitter globally for a few hours and disrupted Facebook and LiveJournal last week were intended to be surgical strikes against a small-time blogger espousing anti-Russian sentiments, tech security researchers say.

But the widespread collateral damage highlighted the fragility of social networks that aggregate large blocks of user accounts in systems built for speed. Social networks expose patrons to "more vulnerabilities than in traditional networks," says Suzanne Magee, CEO of security firm TechGuard. "We share our vulnerabilities because we are sharing resources with others..."