Twitter has urged all its users to consider changing their passwords after it discovered a bug that had stored passwords as plain text.
The social network disclosed the issue in a blog post and series of Tweets on Thursday, saying it had resolved the problem and an internal investigation had found no indication passwords were stolen or misused by insiders.
Still, it urged all users to consider changing their passwords.
“We fixed the bug and have no indication of a breach or misuse by anyone,” Chief Executive Jack Dorsey stated in a Tweet.
[caption caption="Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey"]
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“As a precaution, consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password,” he added.
According to BBC, the glitch was related to its use of "hashing", which masks passwords as users enter them by replacing them with numbers and letters.
The bug caused the passwords to be stored on an internal computer log before the hashing process was completed.
The disclosure comes as lawmakers and regulators around the world scrutinize the way companies store and secure consumer data, after a string of security incidents at renowned companies including Facebook and Uber Technologies.
The manner in which some companies use private data was put into question recently when Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm, was accused of interfering in Kenya's 2017 Presidential Elections.
One month later, the company that acquired private user data from Facebook is said to have closed down its business after running out of customers as a result of the televised expose.
However, a new company named Emerdata has already allegedly been set up to explore the vacuum created by Cambridge Analytica's exit.
[caption caption="Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg"]
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