A number of Twitter users woke up today to a very unpleasant surprise – discovering that their accounts had been hacked. TechCrunch reports that a large number of users have received emails from Twitter instructing them to change their passwords due to the breach, although it’s unclear exactly how widespread the problem actually is.
The TechCrunch Twitter account was among those affected, which resulted in their account tweeting a spammy add regarding a work from home scheme. The tweet is pictured below. If you see any links like this in your Twitter feed, do NOT click on them – it’s possible that the link could be used to compromise your account.
Twitter has issued a statement on the matter, stating that the emails were sent to more users than were actually compromised:
We’re committed to keeping Twitter a safe and open community. 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.
As always, we recommend that people review these tips on how to keep their Twitter accounts secure:https://support.twitter.com/articles/76036-keeping-your-account-secure#
It’s unclear how many users Twitter sent that email too, however – or what they mean by “larger number of accounts.” If you’re a Twitter user, now would be an excellent time to change your password, whether you received a notice from Twitter or not. Better safe than sorry!
