Security Breach: Twitter Unintentionally Resets More Passwords Than Accounts Hacked
Yet again the famous micro blogging site Twitter faced security challenge. Tuesday a huge number of Twitter users across the globe received emails warning that their account may have been compromised and their passwords had been reset as a precautionary measure to prevent unauthorized access. In the e-mail, the microblogging company noted: "Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a Web site or service not associated with Twitter. We've reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account."
It remains unclear how many have been affected by the password reset e-mail or what's caused the mass e-mailing of its users. A post by TweetSmarter on Wednesday noted that in some cases when "large numbers of Twitter accounts have been hijacked," the company sends out these e-mails en masse, even sending messages to accounts that may not have been affected by any hack or hijack to err on the side of caution. The emails are apparently legitimate, though they were sent to more than victims of compromised accounts. The mass email coincided with incidents involving several high-profile accounts, including at least one account belonging to the BBC. Other media organisations, such as the TechCrunch blog, reported being warned.
"We’re committed to keeping Twitter a safe and open community," reads a notice the company issued earlier Thursday. "As part of that commitment, in instances when we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users. "In this case, we unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused."
Twitter officials have not disclosed how many uncompromised accounts had passwords reset, nor any more on the attack that led to those actions. The social media site currently has 140 million active users. Some victims reported having select tweets deleted, while others started sending out spam.
-Source (CNET)
