Hey @twitter I just got a "reset your password" email. Is this for real?
— Jeremy Writebol (@jwritebol) February 2, 2013
Yes, it’s likely real. Twitter is encouraging users to follow “good password hygiene” tonight after revealing that hackers might have gained access to a quarter-million usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords this week.
ALERT: Twitter: Hackers may have gained limited access to information of approximately 250,000 users; Twitter was able to shut down hacking,
— CNBC (@CNBC) February 2, 2013
In a blog post, Twitter has announced that it has reset passwords and revoked session tokens for those users it believes were affected by the attack. If you’re having trouble logging in with your usual password, you might have been among those affected.
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.
Change your password, people: Twitter hacked, 250,000 user accounts compromised http://t.co/TbBOLnZp
— Liz Heron (@lheron) February 2, 2013
Well, it looks like I was one of the 250,000 accounts forced to reset my password. http://t.co/INSo9nwL
— Tyler Hillsman (@thillsman) February 2, 2013
"Twitter believes your account may have been compromised by a service not associated with Twitter. We’ve reset your password." wha
— Alex! ?️??? (@heyalexdaily) February 2, 2013
Uh… Change your Twitter password. Right now. Not kidding.
— Luke Sheppard (@tcpiplab) February 2, 2013
Twitter hacked by professionals – change your password people
— Robin (@RobinDallasTX) February 2, 2013
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Twitter just reset my password of its own accord. Hmmm. I was really careful when re-entering it but the reset seems legit. Very weird.
— Danielle Donders (@DaniGirl) February 2, 2013
Just changed my twitter password. At least twitter world lets u know if something happens.
— Angelique (@ange07) February 2, 2013
@Muchmor Hope nobody uses the same password for their email and twitter accounts. Maybe a good time to update passwords.
— Adrian Ellis (@thinkinthebox) February 2, 2013
Twitter describes the attack as “extremely sophisticated.”
This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident. The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked. For that reason we felt that it was important to publicize this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the Internet safer for all users.
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