Twitter discovered an issue in their logging which had the potential to leak password data - out of caution they are recommending people change their passwords, particularly if this password may have been used in more than one location. Details of the annoucement follow below including notes on avoiding phishing emails.
Never follow links in an email of this sort - always go directly to the site to change your password to avoid phishing attacks.
The links below were carefully verified and link directly to twitter help content.
What follows is the email we received:
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Hi @bitblocksystems, |
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When you set a password for your Twitter account, we use technology that masks it so no one at the company can see it. We recently identified a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. We have fixed the bug, and our investigation shows no indication of breach or misuse by anyone. |
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Out of an abundance of caution, we ask that you consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password. You can change your Twitter password anytime by going to the password settings page. |
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About The Bug |
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We mask passwords through a process called hashing using a function known as bcrypt, which replaces the actual password with a random set of numbers and letters that are stored in Twitter's system. This allows our systems to validate your account credentials without revealing your password. This is an industry standard. |
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Due to a bug, passwords were written to an internal log before completing the hashing process. We found this error ourselves, removed the passwords, and are implementing plans to prevent this bug from happening again. |
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Tips on Account Security |
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Again, although we have no reason to believe password information ever left Twitter's systems or was misused by anyone, there are a few steps you can take to help us keep your account safe: |
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