Twitter forced an undisclosed number of users to change their
passwords this week after the micro-blogging site discovered it had
been invaded by hackers using a complex scheme to gain access to
users' information.
"As part of our ongoing efforts to monitor our user base for odd
activity, we noticed a sudden surge in followers for a couple of
accounts in the last five days. Given the circumstances surrounding
this," wrote Twitter director of Trust and Safety Del Harvey, in a
blog post Tuesday.
"Given the circumstances surrounding this, we felt it was best
to push out a password reset to accounts that were following these
suspicious users," said Harvey. He didn't specify exactly how many
Twitter users were affected by the problem.
Harvey said the hackers may have gained access to Twitter user
names and passwords through third-party torrent sites they created.
The torrent sites, which typically allow users to download media
files from the Internet, were used to capture log-in details and
other information.
Since many individuals use the same user names and passwords for
multiple Internet accounts, the hackers were able to apply the
captured information to Twitter, and possibly other sites.
"As a general rule, if you signed up for a torrent forum or
torrent site built by a third party, you should probably change
your password there," said Harvey.
"The takeaway from this is that people are continuing to use the
same email address and password (or variant) on multiple sites,"
Harvey noted. "We strongly suggest that you use different passwords
for each service you sign up for," he advised.