The usernames and passwords of close to 33 million Twitter users have been made available on the dark web, reports The Wall Street Journal.
In a note to users, Michael Coates, Twitter's trust and information security officer, said Twitter is confident account information was not obtained from Twitter's servers, meaning the social media platform itself was not breached. Rather, the company believes the usernames and passwords were drawn out by combining information gathered from other recent breaches, such as the LinkedIn, Myspace and Tumblr hacks.
Twitter notified users whose accounts they identified required extra protection. Accounts with direct password exposure were locked and the owner was required to reset the password.
"The recent prevalence of data breaches from other websites is challenging for all websites — not just those breached," Mr. Coates wrote.
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