Users are still concerned after receiving emails saying that their accounts might have been compromised or the one entitled – Important information regarding your security and privacy from social networking sites – Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest.
The problem arose when Zendesk who store and organise emails for customer support and help desks for these social networks had their systems hacked. Zendesk believe that during the security breach personal information such as email addresses linked to these platforms may have been downloaded by the hacker.
Quote from the zendesk blog
We believe that the hacker downloaded email addresses of users who contacted those three customers for support, as well as support email subject lines. We notified our affected customers immediately and are working with them to assist in their response.
This will only affect you if you have emailed customer support at Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr – which most of us have at some point. I imagine if you have then that is why you have received an email warning you of the breach. – There is no indication that passwords have been stolen at all.
So, I don’t think there is much to worry about here – if you are concerned you can change your passwords, in fact if it has been a while since you changed your passwords on these or any accounts then maybe you should anyway.
Phishing Scam
What we need to watch out for are bogus emails pretending to come from these platforms asking us to change our passwords with a link that looks like it comes from the social network itself. This is how hackers will then hack into your accounts with a Phishing scam email. Sites like this never ask for your passwords via email, so it will be easy to spot if you do get a Phishing email.
Never, click links in emails like this – always – If you want to change your password – go directly to the site and click on change password.
How to change your passwords
For Twitter
Click the cog – settings – password (on the left)
For Tumblr
Click the Cog.
For Pinterest
Hover over your username – click settings and then Change Password.
Hope that helps
