Once again Twitter users have been warned to change their passwords.
On Thursday, Twitter revealed that it had mistakenly stored passwords in plain text and urged users to immediately change their passwords as a security measure.
We recently found a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. We fixed the bug and have no indication of a breach or misuse by anyone. As a precaution, consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password. https://t.co/RyEDvQOTaZ
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) May 3, 2018
For those who are unaware of what this means, let us tell you:
Since your passwords have not been encrypted, they are now “unmasked” by hackers and even people inside the company!
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In a blog post, Twitter Chief Technology Officer, Parag Agarwal, explained:
“Due to a bug, passwords were written to an internal log before completing the hashing process,” he said.
“We found this error ourselves, removed the passwords, and are implementing plans to prevent this bug from happening again.”
However, the number of passwords that were exposed or how long the glitch was for, making the data vulnerable to hackers, was not disclosed by Twitter.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we ask that you consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password,” Agrawal told users.
“We are very sorry this happened,” he said.
Following Agarwal’s post, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted that the company has “no indication of breach or misuse” and that the company had warned users.
We recently discovered a bug where account passwords were being written to an internal log before completing a masking/hashing process. We’ve fixed, see no indication of breach or misuse, and believe it’s important for us to be open about this internal defect. https://t.co/BJezo7Gk00
— jack (@jack) May 3, 2018
If you are a user, then we suggest that you change your password as soon as possible!
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For those who are unaware of how to do so, let us guide you – simply follow the steps below:
- At the homepage, go to the right-hand corner and click on the ‘Profile and Settings’ button and select ‘Settings and Privacy’ from the drop-down menu.
- On the ‘Settings and Privacy’ page, you want to click on the ‘Passwords’ option on the left-hand menu where you will be taken to the password change page.
- From there, type in your ‘Current Password’ and then type in a new password on the field below that.
- Click on ‘Save Changes’ and you are all set and protected!
Are you a Twitter user? What are your views on this issue? Let us know in the comments!
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