Twitter locks accounts after alleged password leaks

Twitter has locked a number of accounts that may have been affected by internet security breaches, the Security Manager, Michael Coates, said in a blog post on Friday. Coates said “a number of Twitter accounts have been identified for extra protection.

“The accounts, which have direct password exposure, have been locked and now require a password reset by the account owners.”

 Without mentioning the number of accounts affected, the security manager said some leaked data had not been taken from Twitter’s computer servers, but arrived at by breaches at other sites and/or private computers. The statement followed an earlier report that nearly 33 million Twitter accounts had been stolen and offered for sale.

 The report from IT news site, TechCrunch, stated that the leaked information included email addresses, usernames and passwords. The TechCrunch source also indicated that the data may have been obtained from hacks of web browsers, adding that many of the affected users appeared to have been in Russia. 

Meanwhile, Twitter and other security experts had warned users of using the same password for various online services.