social media

Twitter Tells All Users to Change Their Passwords as Security Precaution

Twitter on Thursday advised all users to change their passwords after the company discovered a bug that stored unmasked passwords.

The social media company said that the bug was fixed and that there was "no indication of breach or misuse by anyone." It urged its more than 300 million users to change their passwords on all services that use the same password.

Twitter said it uses a standard industry process to mask the passwords with a random set of numbers and letters that are stored in Twitter’s system. The bug allowed the password to be stored before the process happened, Twitter said.

Experts say anyone who reuses a password increases their chances of falling victim to data theft.

Hackers often test big batches of passwords stolen in one breach against other potentially sensitive accounts, a practice called "credential stuffing," the Associate Press reported.

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