Twitter Accidentally Sends Password Reset Emails

Users might have felt a slight disturbance in the Twitter universe when a number of users received email notices to change their passwords. Fortunately and amusingly, this time there was no security breach involved but is actually what can be best described as a freak accident.

Twitter users are no strangers to such emails from the company, informing them that their account might have been compromised and, therefore, should have their password changed. Usually, these notices have been sent to few individuals or, in case of a massive hacking incident, majority of users.

Yesterday some users reported suddenly being locked out of their accounts for no apparent reason. Given that this is Twitter, who has had its fair share of security problems, it cause some amount of confusion and worry. Those anxieties were exacerbated when these individuals received an email advising them to change their password for security purposes. Naturally, users started panicking.

Twitter came out to reassure its users that no hacking took place. Instead, the sending of emails was purely accidental, triggered by a system error on Twitter's side. Fortunately, the number of affected users, though many, isn't a considerable amount compared to the total of Twitter users.

This admission of guilt on Twitter's part should give users some peace of mind. It probably annoyed a lot of users as well for the confusion and fear it generated. At least now they have had the chance to keep their passwords updated, which is always a good security practice, though something preferably done without undue pressure.

VIA: Re/code