Twitter Hacked! Affecting Approximately 250,000 Users
The micro-blogging site, Twitter, became the victim of a hacking incident, potentially compromising a huge number of Twitter accounts, according to a recently released report.
In its company blog, Twitter posted, "This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information — usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords — for approximately 250,000 users."
Furthermore, Bob Lord, Twitter's Director of Information Security adds "As a precautionary security measure, we have reset passwords and revoked session tokens for these accounts. If your account was one of them, you will have recently received (or will shortly) an email from us at the address associated with your Twitter account notifying you that you will need to create a new password. Your old password will not work when you try to log in to Twitter."
Meanwhile, Twitter reminds its site users to make sure to always check that their browser's bar is on a https://twitter.com website before entering their password. Phishing sites often look just like Twitter, so check the URL before entering your login information. Avoid using websites or services that promise to get you lots of followers. These sites have been known to send spam updates and damage user accounts.
Additionally, review your approved connections on your Applications page at https://twitter.com/setiings/applications. If you see any applications that you don't recognize, click the Revoke Access button. Make sure you use a strong password — at least 10 (but more is better) characters and a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols — that you are not using for any other accounts or sites. Using the same password for multiple online accounts significantly increases your odds of being compromised.
If you're still unsure if the details on your Twitter account has been leaked by the Twitter hacker/s, I'd suggest that you change your Twitter password right now.
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