Somebody please help the MTA

News flash, the NYC MTA has got both brand and technology problems.

• They’ve been brandjacked on Twitter. If you follow @nyc_mta or @mta_nyc, you’ll have noticed odd and/or false information posted recently. Both claim to have been hacked; both mostly seem to use Twittermail to post. I’d been under the (apparently false) impression that the @mta_nyc account was official. Called the MTA press office this morning, was rapidly transferred to the voicemail of one Aaron Donovan, and a Google search for his name turned up this Streetsblog post from October.

• They don’t respect your precious monthly SMS limit. MTA offers official e-mail and SMS alerts, but Silicon Alley Insider finds them more trouble than they’re worth.

• They’re messing with your privacy. MTA is planning a program to provide emailed excuse notes for commuters made late by service delays. Snailmail excuse notes already exist, but the presumed ease of this gives me chilling visions of asshole supervisors routinely demanding proof that our transit system is crap.

Won’t somebody please help the MTA?