Skip to main content

Twitter Phishing Attack: Time for Tweeters to Reset Passwords

tweetTwitter is under attack and many users have been ordered to change up their passwords. Today’s Twitter phishing attack forced the site to deny access to Tweeters due to one person’s ability to gain access to a bevy of user accounts. The Tweeters affected by the scheme reported that fake e-mails and direct messages on Twitter are being passed around and pushing people to phishing sites. Twitter later announced that the emails warning about the phishing are actually legitimate and if users are sent such an email, they should heed the warning and change up their password. Other sites and blogs, such as Mashable, are offering up some safety tips and precautions for Twitters users.

“If you get a Twitter direct message today reading: ‘check out this funny blog about you,’ we advise you don’t. The link leads to a fake Twitter login page that attempts to steal your Twitter login,” says Mashable. “Particularly susceptible to this attack are Twitter users who get their DMs [direct messages] delivered by email: it’s perfectly natural to be prompted to log in after clicking through from your e-mail account.”

Mashable also noted that it was not an abuse within NutshellMail that allowed the attack, as previously believed. The good news for Twitter is that they’ve finally made it to the big time—only truly profitable and popular Websites get phished. Let this be a lesson—and a little reward—to you Twitter.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Dena Cassella
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Haole built. O'ahu grown
Some blue check Twitter users were unable to edit their names
Twitter app on the OnePlus 10T.

Twitter's recent blue check verification drama took an even sillier turn yesterday. Amid all the recent commotion regarding Twitter Blue subscriptions, paying for blue checks, and impersonation versus parody, some Twitter users temporarily lost their ability to edit their screen names.

On Monday evening, some verified Twitter users began reporting that they couldn't change their screen names. It's unclear to us at this time if the issue these users were experiencing was a bug or a new feature of a platform that was recently purchased by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Read more
Mastodon surpasses 1 million monthly active users as Twitter backlash worsens
Series of four mobile screenshots showing Mastodon's sign-up process.

Mastodon, an alternative to Twitter that's been getting a lot of attention lately, just surpassed 1 million monthly active users this week, all while Twitter struggles to deal with the  backlash caused by recently announced changes to its platform.

On Monday, Eugen Rochko, founder and CEO of Mastodon, announced via a Mastodon post that the social media platform now has "1,028,362 monthly active users across the network today." This news comes after a particularly tumultuous week (and weekend) for Twitter after Elon Musk took over the popular microblogging platform just last month.

Read more
Twitter is reportedly working on paid DMs to celebrities
The Twitter app on the Sony XPeria 5 II.

In what appears to be another effort to help Twitter generate revenue at the start of its Elon Musk era, the social media platform is reportedly working on paid Direct Messaging (DM), with a particular emphasis on those paid messages being sent to celebrities.

On Thursday, The New York Times published a report in which it mentioned that -- according to internal documents it saw and "two people with knowledge of the work" -- that Twitter was working on a paid DM feature that would allow users to send messages to celebrities for a fee. The fee structure for this feature apparently hasn't been officially finalized yet, but The Times did note that it could be "as little as a few dollars per direct message."

Read more