Some unknown hackers managed to hack into several Twitter accounts, forcing the company to send an email to users and asking them to change their passwords. Twitter announced this by tweeting using their @support account about this. Here is the link to the tweet.
If you received an email regarding a password reset on your account earlier today, check our Status blog for more info: http://t.co/m3LiGNY0
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 8, 2012
They also posted an update about the issue here.
If you have received an email from twitter support regarding this, make sure you change your account password to regain access to it.
Some tips to make sure your account doesn’t get hacked:
- Make sure you use a strong alphanumeric password with special characters.
- Monitor which apps you have allowed access to at https://twitter.com/settings/applications
- Disable access to any app that looks strange or spams your timeline. Disable access to the apps that you don’t use.
- If you use a browser on your computer, make sure you clear the cookies and the cache after you log out after your account.
- Don’t click on short urls, especially from people you do not know.
- If you find that you have received a Direct message with a link, especially one that is a short url or has a message like “Hey someone is talking about you….. or… someone said that you did”, its probably a spam message with a phishing url. Inform the respective twitter user about the message you received and ask them to change the password.
via TheWindowsClub