No 'hacking' necessary to post lewd 'Weinergate' photo on Twitter

It was not necessary to hack into Rep. Anthony Weiner's Twitter account to post a lewd photo, thanks to a feature on the picture hosting site yFrog.com.

In an incident that has come to be known as "Weinergate," the Twitter account of the New York congressman sent a racy photo to a female college student from Seattle using yFrog.

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Weiner claimed that his Facebook account was hacked and that, while the photo did appear on his Twitter feed, he did not send it.

The photo shows a man's erect penis outlined in a pair of tight boxer briefs and was first published by Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.

Breitbart, a conservative blogger, has claimed that the incident either warrants an investigation because a sitting congressman's Twitter account was hacked or warrants an investigation because Weiner, who is married, sent a lewd photo to a young woman. BigGovernment has even suggested that Weiner had violated House rules by not reporting the alleged "hack."

"His duty as a member or Congress requires & demands an investigation into the 'hack,'" Breitbart tweeted Wednesday. "His colleagues now at risk."

But a feature of yFrog uncovered by the blog CannonFire and confirmed by the blog Little Green Footballs shows that the lewd photo could have been sent without having even accessed Weiner's Twitter account.

It is possible to post an image on yFrog with a corresponding tweet by using a cell phone's Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). All one needs to do is send a picture via MMS to the user’s yFrog email address.

In addition, it is possible to add a caption to the picture or use the Twitter reply function when posting an image with yFrog in this manner. Thus, anyone with Weiner's yFrog email address and access to a smart phone could have sent the lewd photo.

While this not prove that Weiner did not send the lewd photo himself, it shows it would be easy for someone with his yFrog address to do so without having to hack into his Twitter account or crack his password.