Twitter admitted a bug allowed for passwords to be stored in plain text in an internal log. To avoid any potential hack, it is highly recommended you change your password immediately.
It’s the kind of press platforms like to avoid. However, Twitter did come forward and admitted that it fixed a bug that stored user passwords in plain text. The company explained that the internal log on which passwords were stored was contained within their systems and no passwords had been compromised. I don’t know about you, but I would still change my passwords. Better safe than sorry.
Twitter’s chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal, confirmed that the company’s own investigation “shows no indication of breach or misuse by anyone.” However, the official recommendation is that users change their Twitter passwords as soon as possible.
Twitter usually encrypts passwords on its system, replacing them with random numbers and other characters before they are stored. This process, known as hashing, allows for the platform to validate your password when logging in without having to actually reveal it in its original format. Except for that time, the process did not work, and passwords were stored without encryption.
It’s not a big security alert, but in these “Cambridge Analytica” times, trust isn’t exactly there for users. I am pleased that Twitter came forward and admitted to the bug. Now go and change that password.
You might also like
More from Twitter
Twitter Makes It Harder To Switch To Reverse-Chronological Feed
Twitter has made it harder to switch between the Latest and Home feeds in the app, with the algorithm-based feed …
Twitter Unveils New Monetization Tracking Dashboard For Creators
Twitter recently unveiled a new Creator Dashboard to help creators make the shift into monetized content creation.
Twitter Is Working On A New Podcast Discovery Tab
User reports show a new podcast discovery button placed within the sidebar menu and the lower navigation panel of the …
Twitter Expands Birdwatch Access To More Test Users
Twitter has announced updates for its Birdwatch crowdsourced fact-checking program, and a new testing group of random US users.
Twitter Rolls Out New Bot Labels To Identify Good Bot Accounts
Developers can take part in the initiative and identify their accounts as bots, displaying a label on their profiles and …
Twitter Expands Beta Access To ‘Safety Mode’ Anti-Abuse Tool
The tool, which automatically blocks abusive accounts for seven days, has been extended to users in a number of English-speaking …
Twitter Adds Three New Payment Options To Tip Creators
Twitter is adding three more payment methods to tip creators in Africa and India, as well as adding support for …
Twitter Is Working On A Feature That Lets You Tweet Select Users Only
Twitter may soon be launching Flock, a feature that allows users to select a group of up to 150 close …