PayPal officials could not be reached for comment on the incident.

The Fox and PayPal incidents are but two examples of the risks that the use of social services like Twitter can pose to companies, said Rich Mogull an analyst at Securosis.

"If you are large enough, talk to your provider ahead of time to understand how to report a problem, and who to report it to," Mogull suggested.

"Make contact, get a name, and establish a validation process to prove you are the owner of the account in an incident," he added. "The last thing you want to be doing is hanging around for a help desk person to see your request in the queue."

Companies using social media for business purposes also need to restrict access to the accounts, he said.