The hackers figured out how to exploit a hole in Twitter's security so they could steal hard-to-get handles and sell or give them away to friends (and crushes).
The atrocious security flaw that allowed this to happen is simple. Like most sites, Twitter blocks or flags an account after a certain number of failed login attempts, but only if they're all coming from the same IP address. So as long as the attempts look like they're coming from different IPs, hackers can basically try as many different passwords as they want until they crack it.
How to Prevent Getting Hacked
Until Twitter (hopefully) fixes this loophole, the only thing you can do is make your account as secure as possible. Daniel admits that his password wasn't very strong, so a good first step would be to make your password as secure as possible.
You can also tweak your settings so that you have to give personal information in order to reset your password. Just go to Account Settings, then find the box marked Require personal information to reset my password. When this is enabled, you'll have to enter your email address or phone number to do a password reset, which brings us to our next point...
It's also always a good idea to use an email address for your social media accounts that's different from your primary or public one. If you use the same email address for everything, once someone has access to it they can get into almost anything else. If you use Gmail, you should also enable 2-step verification on your account.
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