Here’s CBS News’ statement on the investigation:

A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity and alter system times to cause further confusion.

CBS News is taking steps to identify the responsible party and their method of access.

According to Attkisson’s own bio, she “digs up facts that others don’t want you to have.”

CBS Statement: A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer…

— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) June 14, 2013

That may have something to do with the breach – at least according to Attkisson. Weeks ago, she hinted that she had suspicions about being watched – in a way similar to that of Fox News Channel’s James Rosen. Last month, it was revealed that the Justice Department had been monitoring Rosen’s communications. They were able to do so with the use of aggressive warrant-gaining tactics like listing Rosen as a co-conspirator for his role in publishing sensitive information.

“Well, I don’t know details of his…I only know what I’ve read but I think there could be some relationship between these types of things and what’s happened to me.

Well, I have been, as I said, pursuing an issue for a long time now – much longer than you’ve been hearing about this in the news – with some compromising of my computer systems in my house – my personal computer systems as well as my work computer systems. So, we’re digging into that and just not ready to say much more right now, but I am concerned,” she said in a recent radio interview.

CBS News did not level any official accusations in their statement.

Well, here’s a 2-second shirt-folding tutorial to help. Yep. Two seconds. For faster laundry. Or, you know, you could employ this technique to help out your local clothing store workers. Whatever fold you’re doing when you try on a shirt and attempt to put it back in the shelf – well, it’s not working. It’s actually quite terrible. And they know who you are.

Seriously, it works. And it’s awesome. Lifehack+1.

[via DaveHax]

Now we know who did it. According to Michael Isikoff at NBC News, hackers from the People’s Republic of China are to blame for attacks that targeted both the Obama and McCain campaigns back in 2008.

The goal of the attacks? “To export massive amounts of internal data from both campaigns – including internal position papers and private emails of key advisers in both camps,” says NBC News.

“Based on everything I know, this was a case of political cyberespionage by the Chinese government against the two American political parties,” said Dennis Blair, President Obama’s director of national intelligence in 2009 and 2010. “They were looking for positions on China, surprises that might be rolled out by campaigns against China.”

This is the first time that we’re hearing reports on the source and gravity of the attacks. Former security officials tell NBC News that the breach was ” far more serious than has been publicly known, involving the potential compromise of a large number of internal files.”

The attack wasn’t too complicated on the surface – a simple email to staffers that contained malware. But the security team that was tapped to contain and eliminate the infection, once it was identified months later, says that is was a very sophisticated attack that replicated fast and was designed to stay hidden for a long time.

What’s interesting about the timing of this reveal is that President Obama is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this weekend at a U.S.-China summit. Reuters says that cybersecurity will be a main focus of the meeting.

“Every day, a growing number of people log in to Twitter. Usually these login attempts come from the genuine account owners, but we occasionally hear from people whose accounts have been compromised by email phishing schemes or a breach of password data elsewhere on the web. Today we’re introducing a new security feature to better protect your Twitter account: login verification,” says Twitter.

It works similar to other two-step verification systems you may be familiar with (Google, for instance). Once you enable login verification, the next time you attempt to log in you’ll also need to enter a code that Twitter will send to your mobile device. So, it’s your password + mobile code. Two steps.

All you have to do to enable it is visit your account settings page.

Twitter says that you existing applications you’ve enabled via Twitter login should be unaffected:

“With login verification enabled, your existing applications will continue to work without disruption. If you need to sign in to your Twitter account on other devices or apps, visit your applications page to generate a temporary password to log in and authorize that application.”

Of course, two-factor authentication won’t solve all of your security problems, and it’s not foolproof. But it’s a much-needed buffer between you and everyone out there eyeing your account with malicious intent.

“There have been several recent incidents of high-profile news and media Twitter handles being compromised. We believe that these attacks will continue, and that news and media organizations will continue to be high value targets to hackers,” said Twitter in a memo obtained by BuzzFeed. “These incidents appear to be spear phishing attacks that target your corporate email. Promoting individual awareness of these attacks within your organization and following the security guidelines below is vital to preventing abuse of your Twitter accounts.”

As you may remember, the Associated Press’ Twitter account was hacked last week, and it sent out a false tweet claiming that there had been an explosion at the White House and that President Obama was injured. This tweet, though only visible for minutes before the AP took down the account, sent the stock market into a dive. Earlier this week, The Guardian also fell victim to a hack.

Twitter’s warning to news organizations suggests many of the things you would expect: change your passwords, make them strong, and keep your email accounts secure, since Twitter uses email to verify. Twitter also asks hack victims to contact them immediately so they can work on finding the problem as soon as possible.

But there is a pretty strange and severe request from Twitter: make sure you have a single computer that’s just for Twitter. Don’t do anything else on it. What?

“Designate one computer to use for Twitter. This helps keep your Twitter password from being spread around. Don’t use this computer to read email or surf the web, to reduce the chances of malware infection. Minimize the number of people that have access. Even if you use a third-party platform to avoid sharing the actual Twitter account password, each of these people is a possible avenue for phishing or other compromise.”

Interesting. Twitter is obviously taking this very seriously, and thinks you should too. If you operate an account that you think would be a high target of hackers, it’s time to up the concern a little bit.

Recent reports indicated that Twitter was working on two-step verification (finally) to make it a bit harder for attackers to compromise accounts. Although that wouldn’t totally fix the problem, it would be a start. It’s interesting that although we heard that this two-factor verification is on the horizon, Twitter is suggesting in this letter that organizations seek out help from a third-party two-step verification provider.

All Things D obtained an internal memo that explains the nature of the attack:

We recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue.The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords – technically ‘hashed’ and ‘salted’ passwords. We never store passwords in plain text.

and…

The database that stores customer credit card information was not affected or accessed. The database that stores merchants’ financial and banking information was not affected or accessed.

If your LivingSocial account was affected, you’ll likely be receiving an email soon notifying you of the hack. It’ll ask you to create a new password and “consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s)”

Here’s the full email that’s being sent out to customers:

Subject: An important update on your LivingSocial.com account

LivingSocial recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue.

The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords – technically ‘hashed’ and ‘salted’ passwords. We never store passwords in plain text.

The database that stores customer credit card information was not affected or accessed.

Although your LivingSocial password would be difficult to decode, we want to take every precaution to ensure that your account is secure, so we are expiring your old password and requesting that you create a new one.

For your security, please create a new password for your < > account by following the instructions below.

1. Visit LivingSocial.com

2. Click on the “Create a New Password” button (top right corner of the homepage)

3. Follow the steps to finish

We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s).

The security of your information is our priority. We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future.

Please note that LivingSocial will never ask you directly for personal or account information in an email. We will always direct you to the LivingSocial website — and require you to login — before making any changes to your account. Please disregard any emails claiming to be from LivingSocial that request such information or direct you to a different website that asks for such information.

If you have additional questions about this process, the “Create a New Password” button on LivingSocial.com will direct you to a page that has instructions on creating a new password and answers to frequently asked questions.

We are sorry this incident occurred, and we look forward to continuing to introduce you to new and exciting things to do in your community.

Tim O’Shaughnessy

CEO, LivingSocial

If that’s not enough of a reason to watch, I don’t know what is:

The AP Twitter hack has prompted an FBI investigation, and has likely sped up Twitter’s plans to add an extra layer of account security with two-step verification.

According to Wired, Twitter has such a system currently undergoing internal testing, and they will soon begin to roll it out “incrementally.”

Two-step verification, as you probably know, is really any approach to account authentication that involves two layers. Usually, this involves the typical password layer, beefed up by a mobile alert (usually an additional code sent to an account holder’s device). Plenty of companies with online log-ins like Google and Apple have already implemented some version of this security measure.

Back in February, a job posting on Twitter’s employment site suggested that Twitter was getting more serious about two-step verification. The posting, for a software engineer specializing in product security, listed duties to ““design and develop user-facing security features, such as multifactor authentication and fraudulent login detection.”

Two-step verification isn’t a panacea for every product security issue, and it’s not going to prevent every hack. But it is a necessary blockade between your account and the bad guys who wish to use it for nefarious purposes. It’s about time that Twitter launched something like this, and there’s no better time than now – especially after the recent high-profile hacks.

“Thank you for your patience,” tweeted the @AP account early Wednesday morning.

Yesterday, around 1 pm ET, the @AP Twitter account tweeted: “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” This was quickly confirmed by other AP Twitter accounts as well as AP employees to be bogus, and the AP soon confrimed that it had fallen victim to a hack.Following the hack, the Syrian Electronic Army took credit for it on Twitter. That main account has since been suspended. The FBI is conducting a full investigation into the incident.

The @ap Twitter account, which was suspended after being hacked, has been secured and is back up. Thank you for your patience. – @ericcarvin

— The Associated Press (@AP) April 24, 2013

Although the tweet was identified as fake in a matter of minutes, it had a terrifying effect on the stock market. After the false tweet claiming a White House explosion was sent, the Dow Jones industrial average sharply dropped 143 points. It quickly recovered.

But it just goes to show how powerful a tweet from the AP can be – really any high-profile tweet in general. What would happen if the next hacked tweet said something that was a little harder to disprove in a matter of minutes?

But if you follow the Associated Press’ official Twitter account, you might have seen some disturbing news to the contrary. Earlier this afternoon, the AP’s official Twitter account, @AP, tweeted this:

Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.

It was quickly revealed to be the work of hackers, as AP staff began to tweet that the info was false. The AP has officially confirmed the hack, saying,

“Hackers compromised Twitter accounts of The Associated Press on Tuesday, sending out an erroneous tweet about an attack at the White House. The tweet said that there had been two explosions at the White House and President Barack Obama was injured. The attack on AP’s Twitter account and AP mobile app was preceded by a phishing attempt on AP’s corporate network.”

Also, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says that the President is doing just fine.

As of 1:55 pm EST, @AP account has been suspended for further investigation.

UPDATE: It appears that the false tweet sent the Dow plunging for a brief moment. Here’s what the activity looked like today:

Just goes to show the power of Twitter as a breaking news source, even if that breaking news is pure BS.