Source: NurPhoto / Getty
Instead of Tweets, Twitter users were greeted by a warning from the social media company highly recommending them to change their passwords.
The sudden course of action was brought on when the company discovered a bug that was causing users’ passwords to be stored in their system unmasked. Generally when Twitter stores hashed passwords when everything is working correctly. What that means exactly is instead of your password showing as the user created it, its stored jumbled up into a combination of random letters and numbers so no one in the company can see your password.
The bug was caused the exact opposite and stored passwords on an internal log before the hashing process could be completed. Twitter spotted the issue immediately, corrected the problem and claims the passwords never left its system or have been misused improperly. The company suggested in a blog post all users should change their passwords with a stronger one not used on any other site and implement the two-factor authentication process just to be on the safe side.
Speaking on the matter, Twitter said:
“We are very sorry this happened,” Twitter said. “We recognize and appreciate the trust you place in us, and are committed to earning that trust every day.”
Twitter pointed out it discovered the issue recently but did not disclose how long users’ passwords were exposed due to the bug. We will take the company’s word on the matter, but yeah you should definitely change your password regardless of any reassurances they give.
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Photo: NurPhoto / Getty
