Popular microblogging service Twitter `unintentionally' reset the passwords of its users on November 8; with users logging on to the site getting the message that their passwords had been changed around because of concerns over a possible breach of their accounts by the hackers.

Though the password-reset move by Twitter was essentially a routine security precaution - which Internet security experts generally advise users to follow so as to keep hacking attacks at bay -, the company said that the precautionary measure got `accidentally' applied to a much bigger number of users than it had actually intended.

Despite the fact that Twitter refrained from divulging the total number of accounts involved in its recent password-reset move, the company told AFP that it characteristically resets the passwords of users' accounts if it feels that the accounts have been compromised by the hackers. Whenever the passwords are reset, Twitter informs the users via an email, and also provides them the requisite details about creating a new password.

Meanwhile, extending an apology for its `accidental' resetting of users' passwords as well as for the confusion which was created as a result of the move, Twitter said about its usual security precaution this time round: "We unintentionally reset passwords of a larger number of accounts, beyond those that we believed to have been compromised."