Twitter is telling all users that they should change their passwords, now. The company’s chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal, said in a blog…
Twitter is telling all users that they should change their passwords, now.
The company’s chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal, said in a blog post that it had recently found a bug that stored passwords, unmasked, in an internal log.
“We have fixed the bug, and our investigation shows no indication of breach or misuse by anyone,” he wrote. “We are very sorry this happened.”
CEO Jack Dorsey echoed Agrawal, saying in a tweet that the company believes “it’s important for us to be open about this internal defect.”
The San Francisco-based company advised its 336 million users to change their password on Twitter and any other service where they may have used the same password.
It is currently unclear how many passwords were listed on the internal log. One belongs to Twitter’s most high-profile user, Pres. Donald Trump.Last year, an independent contractor deactivated Trump’s Twitter account for 11 minutes.
The company is notifying users to change their passwords when they open the Twitter website or app, but if you don’t see a pop-up here is what you can do.
To change your Twitter password tap on your profile picture on the Twitter website or mobile app. On the web, you’ll then want to click on the “Settings and privacy” option from the drop-down list. Then go to the tab on the left-hand side labeled “Password.”
If you are changing it from your phone you’ll want to click on “Settings and privacy,” then “Account” followed by “Change password.”
If you don’t know your password you can always reset it by choosing the “Forgot password?” option from the login screen and following the steps from there.
One other thing you might want to do while your changing passwords: Set up two-factor authentication. This small move will go a long way in protecting your account from unwanted logins in the future.
Twitter’s ( TWTR) shares lost 1% after hours.
Contributing: Laura Mandaro
Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal
