Twitter Inc., the microblogging service with about 190 million visitors per month, agreed to settle a U.S. government complaint that security lapses allowed hackers to view private messages and send “tweets” from other people’s accounts.

Failures in the company’s data security allowed hackers to gain administrative control of Twitter, the Federal Trade Commission said in a statement today announcing its complaint and settlement. One hacker sent a bogus tweet in January 2009 from the account of then-President-elect Barack Obama offering his followers a chance to win $500 in free gasoline.

San Francisco-based Twitter, which is closely held, allows users to send tweets, or messages of up to 140 characters. Privacy settings allow users to designate some tweets as private.

“When a company promises consumers that their personal information is secure, it must live up to that promise,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in the statement. “Likewise, a company that allows consumers to designate their information as private must use reasonable security to uphold such designations.”

The company said in a blog posting that the attacks on the site resulted in 45 accounts being accessed in January 2009 and 10 in April last year. The company said it moved quickly to address the security issues then.

via Twitter Settles U.S. Charges Over Hacker Attacks – BusinessWeek.