Twitter 'unintentionally' resets passwords

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Some people logging onto Twitter this week had their passwords reset after a routine security precaution was applied to more users than intended.

The San Francisco-based one-to-many text messaging service did not specify the number of accounts involved.

"When we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email to the account holder letting them know this has happened. We also supply information about creating a new password," Twitter told AFP.

"In this case, we unintentionally reset the passwords of a larger number of accounts than actually intended," a Twitter spokesman added.

Twitter apologised for any confusion caused by password resets. Internet security specialists advise people to regularly change passwords on accounts to thwart hackers.

Twitter also posted a "bug alert" telling users that it was working to fix problems with disappearing "tweets" and direct messages at the service.

"Our engineers are hard at work to solve these issues," the Twitter support team said in a blog post.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge