<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"If you get a message from Twitter saying you have to change your password, don't ignore it as a phishing attempt. It may be real. Mashable has received dozens of reports of Twitter asking users, upon log-in, to reset their passwords because their accounts may have been compromised.\nIt's happening all over Twitter, at Mashable's offices and even at TechCrunch. The site fell victim to the hack, and its Twitter account has been tweeting spammy deals. The site asked its readers not to click on these links and has since fixed its Twitter feed.\n\nWe are good now, but please don't click the \"$250 tweet\" links as we were hacked. tcrn.ch/RkZA2G\n\u2014 TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) November 8, 2012\n\nTwitter, by the way, is apparently not taking no for an answer on this. For those whose accounts that may have been compromised, the micro-blogging service will, on log-in, stop you and ask you for one of three pieces of information: your phone number, your email address or your Twitter handle.\nAs soon as you provide one bit of information, the service immediately sends you a password reset email that looks like this:\n\nThe email contains a link for a page where you create a new password. It does not ask you for your old password, but does request you type in the new one, twice.\nEven though this has all the earmarks of a phishing attempt (in fact some still believe it is one), Twitter's official site is not allowing hacked users to access the account unless they reset the password in this method. In our tests, the new passwords do work to access Twitter accounts on the desktop and through mobile apps.\n\nSEE ALSO: 5 Tools for Keeping Track of Your Passwords\nThe apparent hack has been confirmed by multiple Twitter users, TechCrunch and TweetSmarter.\nWe recommend changing your password regularly, and even if you haven't received an email from Twitter, it might be smart to go ahead and change yours now. \n\nUpdate, 11:50 a.m. EST: Twitter confirmed to Mashable and in a blog post that it sent these emails and explained:\n\n...In instances when we believe an account may have been compromised, we reset the password and send an email letting the account owner know this has happened along with information about creating a new password. This is a routine part of our processes to protect our users.\nIn this case, we unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.\n\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/11/08/twitter-hack-password-reset-call/>