Twitter Resets Hacked Passwords, Resets Many Unaffected Ones As well

Twitter has been a usual victim of web hackers and there has been many incidents of password hacking targeting the accounts of celebrities, companies and brands. The micro-blogging website recently sent an email blast to many of the accounts believed to be compromised.

"Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter. We've reset your password...," the email said. Many high-profile accounts including that of BBC and Tech Crunch were compromised after which spam tweets began flowing out from them. "We are good now, but please don't click the "$250 tweet" links as we were hacked," Tech Crunch tweeted after it fixed its account details.

Twitter sent a large number of emails to users informing that their passwords have been reset because their accounts had been compromised. However, it seems that twitter reset too many passwords, many more accounts that were not affected. Later, the company clarified that it has accidently reset too many password.

"We're committed to keeping Twitter a safe and open community. As part of that commitment, in instances when we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users.

In this case, we unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused," the statement from Twitter said.

Security experts warn that the password hacks can occur any time and that the users strictly adhere to the guidelines provided. Twitter suggests a few practices to keep the account secure such as "Use a strong password, watch out for suspicious links, and always make sure you're on Twitter.com before you enter your login information, don't give your username and password out to untrusted third-parties, especially those promising to get you followers or make you money, and make sure your computer and operating system is up-to-date with the most recent patches, upgrades, and anti-virus software."