Twitter hacked, 250,000 accounts compromised

[nsane.forums]

Twitter has just reported that earlier this week, it was a victim of a successful compromise of its systems, resulting in the "limited access" to user information, including usernames, email addresses, session tokens, and encrypted/salted passwords.

Twitter has just reported that earlier this week, it was a victim of a successful compromise of its systems, resulting in the "limited access" to user information, including usernames, email addresses, session tokens, and encrypted/salted passwords, affecting approximately 250,000 users.

More details:

This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users. As a precautionary security measure, we have reset passwords and revoked session tokens for these accounts. If your account was one of them, you will have recently received (or will shortly) an email from us at the address associated with your Twitter account notifying you that you will need to create a new password. Your old password will not work when you try to log in to Twitter.

According to Bob Lord, Twitter's Director of Information Security, the attack was the work of professionals, and Twitter is actively cooperating with law enforcement in an attempt to prevent further damage caused by these attackers.

What can you do to protect your Twitter account? Ensure that in case you receive a password-reset email from Twitter, it indeed points to Twitter's domain, as opportunistic cybercriminals could easily start impersonating Twitter, and mass mail millions of emails in an attempt to gain access to your account. If you do receive a password-reset email from Twitter, ensure that you're using a strong password, and that you've changed it from a malware-free host.

View: Original Article

[DKT27]

Twitter hacked, up to 250,000 accounts compromised

Twitter is reporting that they have recently experienced an unauthorized access attempt, with attackers potentially stealing the data - including salted passwords - for around 250,000 accounts.



2013 is already starting to be a ripe year for security breaches, with Twitter today reporting that their security systems were breached and information for around 250,000 accounts may have been accessed. Twitter's Director of Information Security Bob Lord says that usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted passwords were potentially accessed, but nothing more serious than that.

As Twitter's stored passwords were encrypted there's little chance that the hackers could reveal the actual, plain text password, but as a "precautionary security measure" Twitter has reset the passwords and revoked session tokens for all affected accounts. If you were one of the 250,000 accounts affected, you should shortly receive an email informing you that you'll need to create a new password; this is a very small percentage of overall users, so don't expect to receive an email.

The good news is that Twitter managed to discover the attack while it was in the process of accessing unauthorized data, meaning they could shut it down before more data was accessed. Bob Lord believes that the attack was "not the work of amateurs" nor an "isolated incident", instead saying that the attackers were extremely sophisticated, and that other organizations may have been attacked by similar methods recently.

Twitter is currently working with law enforcement agencies to try and find the people responsible for this recent attack, while also reminding people (once again) to disable Java on their computers.

View: Original Article

[Arion]

:o

[Sonar]

haha! glad i dont use twitter

[Shadowx]

I use twitter btw, but FTW

[dcs18]

. . . . . . . serves them Twits right. :cheers:

[Nautilus]

I changed my password just in case.