Alert. Twitter users advised to change passwords

Twitter's 330 million users area unit being urged to vary their passwords once some were exposed in simple text on its network.

An error within the method the passwords were handled meant some were hold on in simply clear kind, same Twitter.

The passwords ought to are place through a procedure known as "hashing" creating them terribly troublesome to browse.

Security consultants same the method Twitter handled the potential breach was "encouraging".

Substantial exposure

The bug caused the passwords to be hold on on an indoor laptop log before the hashing method was completed.

In a blog, the social network same once the error was uncovered it disbursed an indoor investigation that found no indication passwords were taken or victimized by insiders.

However, it still urged all users to think about dynamic  their passwords "out of AN abundance of caution".

Twitter failed to say what percentage passwords were affected however it's understood the quantity was "substantial" which they were exposed for "several months".

Independent security skilled Graham Cluley said: "It's quite encouraging that Twitter each found the matter internally, and sophisticated its users quickly and transparently.

"Something similar simply happened to Github and that i marvel if Twitter's discovery was caused by them asking: 'Hey, see that Github problem? does one assume one thing like that might happen to us?'.


"The drawback they found is understood since the dawn of logins with passwords," he told the BBC. "The likelihood of passwords (or failing passwords) obtaining logged, in plain text logs accessible for employees or in worst case, complete strangers, is renowned."

Troy Hunt, World Health Organization runs the Have I Been Pwned web site, that logs breaches, aforesaid the error wasn't one thing that might worry him as a result of there was no indication that the login passwords were seen outside the corporate.

Mr Hunt added: "We've definitely seen several precedents of merely flaws leading to information breaches.

"The NGO Blood Service in Australia used associate outsourcing supplier World Health Organization unwittingly printed their entire info to a public net server leading to Australia's  information breach," he said.

All 3 specialists urged users to act on Twitter's recommendation and alter their positive identification.


Mr Cluley says by enabling two-factor authentication that adds another ID check to login makes an attempt would facilitate "harden" accounts.

Twitter discovered the bug some weeks a gone and has reported  it to some regulators, AN business executive told Reuters.