Twitter (NYSE:TWTR): A Twitter bug that caused the online platform to store the passwords of users in an unmasked form was reported Thursday. We first need to back up, do a policy recap, and then we can discuss the severity of this bug.
Twitter Bug Means Users should Change Passwords
Twitter urged its users to change their passwords today. Why? Because the online media giant discovered a bug that changed the ways in which the platform stores its users’ passwords. It was a change not for the better, either. Usually, the company keeps passwords in hashed form, which means the password consists of both letters and numbers. This helps to protect the password.
The problem today was that the company discovered plain text passwords were not being stored in hashed form on an internal log. As a result, Twitter asked users to change not only their password but also any platform where you have used that password. This is because that password has now been exposed, though the company stated that it does not believe any password information left its system.
According to the blog post, the Twitter bug was fixed by the team itself. Further, Twitter removed the passwords, implemented plans to stop something like this from happening again. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t an inconvenience today, though. It’s a Thursday, most Twitter users were at work or school, so that means most probably didn’t have the ease of being able to change all of their passwords mid-day just because the San Fransico-based company said so.
The upside is that if people didn’t have a chance to change their passwords, the company reiterated to TechCrunch that the probability of the passwords being discovered is very low. Additionally, the company said an internal investigation had been conducted and there were no signs of a breach.
Twitter ended the day trading at $30.67. This put the stock up 0.39%. It is currently down 0.75% in after-hours trade.
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The Takeaway
So if it wasn’t a breach, then what? Just a one-off bug? Many are probably hoping for the latter.
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