Advertisement

Twitter asks users to change passwords after bug found

The social media site Twitter is asking its users to change their passwords. It is after the comp...
Newstalk
Newstalk

14.49 4 May 2018


Share this article


Twitter asks users to change p...

Twitter asks users to change passwords after bug found

Newstalk
Newstalk

14.49 4 May 2018


Share this article


The social media site Twitter is asking its users to change their passwords.

It is after the company found a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log.

The site is also asking users to update passwords on any other service that uses their Twitter password.

Advertisement

It says while the bug has now been fixed and they have no indication of a breach or misuse, it is asking users to consider changing their password "as a precaution".

Parag Agrawal, chief technology officer at Twitter, explains: "We mask passwords through a process called hashing using a function known as bcrypt, which replaces the actual password with a random set of numbers and letters that are stored in Twitter’s system.

An alert advising Twitter users to change passwords | Source: Twitter

"This allows our systems to validate your account credentials without revealing your password. This is an industry standard."

He says: "Due to a bug, passwords were written to an internal log before completing the hashing process.

"We found this error ourselves, removed the passwords, and are implementing plans to prevent this bug from happening again."

He adds: "We have no reason to believe password information ever left Twitter’s systems or was misused by anyone".

"We are very sorry this happened. We recognise and appreciate the trust you place in us, and are committed to earning that trust every day."


Share this article


Read more about

News

Most Popular