The data of almost 32 million Twitter users was breached last week, exposing email addresses, usernames and passwords and were purportedly put up for sale by a Russian hacker. Here’s how to protect your information and avoid getting scammed!
Read more: The lesson Facebook’s CEO just taught everyone about reusing passwords
Twitter claims servers not hacked
Whether or not your information was compromised, you can never be too careful. And if someone as tech savvy as Mark Zuckerberg got hacked, this just goes to show no one is immune.
But Twitter claims its servers were not hacked, and instead says the information might have been gathered from other sites or through malware according to CBS News.
Leaked Source, a website that gives users the ability to search and find whether their data is available online said in a blog post, ‘The explanation for this is that tens of millions of people have become infected by malware, and the malware sent every saved username and password from browsers like Chrome and Firefox back to the hackers from all websites including Twitter.’
ZDNet reported that a Russian seller named Tessa88, the same person suspected of hacking MySpace, LinkedIn and Tumblr put the 32 million email addresses, usernames and passwords up for sale online.
Twitter responded to the data breach last week by reminding users to update their passwords, but below are a few more tips to keep your account secure.
Steps to keep your accounts secure
- Change your password. (Just be sure not to use a password on this list of passwords.)
- Check to see if your account was compromised. (Here’s an easy way to know!)
- Use two-factor authentification for Twitter.
- Never use the same password for social networking sites as you do for email or banking websites. (To be ultra secure, use a separate computer for all your banking activities!)
- Don’t use browser password managers. Instead, use password managers like 1Password or LastPass.
Read more: If your password is on this list, it’s time to change it
