Social media giant Twitter reset passwords to thousands of its accounts following the site being compromised by a third party earlier this week.
Written by Kaye Neylon
The micro-blogging site issued a statement informing users that some accounts have been compromised, however some users had received an email informing them that their password had already been reset with no further explanation.
Many Twitter users were left wondering if they had fallen victim to a Phishing attack.
Twitter later confirmed they had unintentionally reset passwords to some accounts following a mix up with data while a mass email was being prepared informing users of the situation.
In a statement, Twitter said:
“When we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened. This is a routine part of our process to protect our users.”
There has been no further explanation from Twitter HQ as to the size of the problem or the number of Twitter users this has affected.
Some account owners went as far as to criticise Twitter’s notification email, suggesting it looked strikingly similar to a “phishing scam” – a message that impersonates an official email in a bid to trick users into entering personal information.
Have you been affected by this? If so, tell us your story and how best you think Twitter can respond to similar problems in the future.
