Twitter says it has sent out the emails unintentionally

Mar 4, 2014 07:30 GMT  ·  By

A few hours ago, a large number of Twitter users started receiving password reset notifications. It turns out that the emails have been sent out by mistake, not because of hacker attacks.

The large number of emails led many to believe a third-party service or website had been breached.

“Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service no associated with Twitter. We’ve reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account,” the emails read.

Around one year ago, Twitter reset the passwords of 250,000 users after suffering a data breach. However, this time, the social media company says there’s no hacking involved. Instead, the passwords have been reset unintentionally.

“We unintentionally sent some password reset notices tonight due to a system error. We apologize to the affected users for the inconvenience,” Twitter representatives have told The Next Web.

While most of the users who have received the password reset notifications haven’t had their accounts exposed, the incident has caused unnecessary panic.

On the other hand, some users’ accounts could have been really targeted by cybercriminals just as the emails were being sent out. Now that Twitter has revealed that the reset has been unintentional, many people might make the mistake of continuing to use the same password.

If your password has been reset, change it. Even if it hasn’t been compromised, users are recommended to periodically change their passwords to make sure their accounts are secured.