Twitter publicly announced that it had detected a series of attempts to access its network throughout previous week, which means that the hackers were able to access the private information and tweets of around 250,000 users. The famous social network discovered the enormous attack, and was able to stop it halfway through the process. Nonetheless, the hackers may have gained access to usernames, email addresses, and even encrypted passwords and data.
As a result of all this, Twitter has reset the passwords of those accounts, and has reset their session tokens. These users will receive an email from Twitter notifying them that they must change their password and reset their session tokens.
According to the official statement, Twitter says that the hack was not done by amateurs, but rather by professionals, and that they don’t believe it was an isolated event. The attacks were extremely sophisticated, and it is believed that other companies were attacked by the same people at the same time. Because of this, Twitter believes it’s important to make the attack known, even when they are still investigating it. Twitter is also getting the U.S. government involved to reinforce the idea that anyone who attempts to hack the company will be legally prosecuted.
Even if your account wasn’t affected by the attack, Twitter recommends that every user makes sure to practice good habits in regards to changing your password and making it complex, on both Twitter and on other websites you frequently use. This means that your password should be at least 10 characters in length, with a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers and symbols, if allowed. It is also recommended that you use different passwords for different websites, because if the security of one of your accounts on a social network or email service is compromised, then the hackers would gain access to all the others with the same password.
Twitter’s closing remarks in the statement urged users to change their password as soon as possible, which is why I am going to reset all my session tokens on all my accounts right now. I recommend you all do the same!
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