Bitly users urged to change passwords

Posted on: May 13, 2014 | By: Christina Bonds | Filed under: Info Security, Passwords

bitly_logoIf you are a Bitly user you should be aware Bitly has had a data compromise.  On May 8th Bitly CEO Mark Josephson announced the breach in a blog post with minimal details stating, “We have reason to believe that Bitly account credentials have been compromised; specifically, users’ email addresses, encrypted passwords, API keys and OAuth tokens.”

What is Bitly?

Bitly is a URL shortening service.   Even if you don’t have a Bitly account you have probably seen a Bitly URL especially when using social media due to the character limitations.  With a Bitly account you can enter a long website address and Bitly will return a shortened address that will redirect to the website when clicked.  Bitly can also be used as a marketing tool for organizations wanting to track how many clicks their webpages are generating.  To make sharing easier Bitly offers the ability to log in using a Facebook or Twitter login.

What should I do if I have a Bitly account?

If you have a Bitly account log in and change your password.  Remember to use a unique password that has not been used for other accounts.  If you use the feature of Bitly which allows you to log in using a social media account you will want to change those passwords as well.  Although Bitly cannot confirm if credentials have been illegally accessed it is still a best practice to change passwords once a data breach has been identified.  Read the entire blog post and its updates here.  It has detailed steps you should perform to change your account credentials.

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Christina Bonds

Christina Bonds, CISSP, is an Application Developer at Elon University

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