When Mashable.com cites your website, you know you’re doing something right. Andrew Girdwood must be thinking that as a lot of people are following his lead when Mashable’s Stan Schroeder reported early this morning:
Numerous Twitter users are pointing out that Twitter forced them to change their passwords out of the blue. According to blogger Andrew Girdwood, these users have received an e-mail containing the following message: “Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset,” together with a link for resetting the password.
Although the e-mail itself looks like a phishing attack, it’s genuine; it seems that admins at Twitter have discovered something fishy is going on, and they’re trying to prevent further damage before it happens.
I’ve been reading up on this all morning (with postings from TechCrunch and The Washington Post as examples); and while this situation shouldn’t be taken lightly, I am not scrambling to change my passwords on my accounts. Why?
- I’m finding out about this scam via Twitter.
- The people on Twitter are finding out via an “official email” from Twitter.com.
- On Twitter’s Status and News blogs and on Twitter’s own feed, there is no mention of this phishing scam whatsoever.
Today on Twitter I got an unexpected DM from a familiar name in my network:
When I clicked on the link, I was asked for my Username and Password. Ummm…no. So I attempted to ping my Twitter contact here and ask if this was, in fact, a real URL. I could not get a DM reply to appear.
And then on the main feed, I saw this from @spam, Twitter’s Spam Hotline:
You might think this is common sense, but it may surprise you how easily people surrender their passwords, particularly from DMs coming from friends and acquaintances.
Be careful!
Someone is out there get phreaky with the phishing.
Just remember these safety twips when you are out in the Twitterverse:
- Never give out your password, even if it’s to someone you know or if they are promising you a bucketload of followers.
- If you do get a DM asking for your password, try to contact the friend on the open feed asking why?
- If someone is, in fact, DMing others with your account, immediately change your password, log out, wait a few ticks, then log in with the new password.
- If you can, change your password for Twitter every 30-60 days.
Twitter is on the case, but make sure you let your fellow Twitterakians know that something is afoot. Stay safe, everyone, and tweet happy!
So, I turned my back for a moment, and Twitter went on and changed their interface on me. Hello! Well, maybe it’s not that dramatic, but it did need to be addressed, especially if you are using All a Twitter as your guide though beginning steps. It may not seem like a big deal, but here’s a quick glimpse of what someone’s page on Twitter.com looks like now…
Thank you, Dan Sawyer, for loaning me your Twitter.com page as a show-and-tell!
Let’s take ten for this Bird House Rules to talk about some of the tweaks that have taken place on your Twitter homepage.
Quick reminder: I’m going to be speaking at Blogworld this year, so please come on out and say “Hi!” I also encourage tweeting from my speaking events. Keeps things lively!
Guest introduction by Katherina
Drop-in from this episode are from:
- Stargate SG-1
- Black Adder
- Iron Man
- Army of Darkness
Album Artwork by Paul Fischer of Dancing Cat Studios
Feel free to syndicate this audio, and provide feedback or topics you’d like to hear discussed on Bird House Rules at 703.791.1701, tmorris (at) imaginethatstudios (dot) com, Twitter, or here at the Bird House Rules Blog!
