Twitch May Have Been Hacked, Company Advises Changing Passwords

Twitch may have been hacked, potentially exposing data such as names and email addresses, the company announced in a blog post Monday.

"We are writing to let you know that there may have been unauthorized access to some Twitch user account information," the company announced.

As a precaution, the company says it's expiring passwords and stream keys, meaning users will have to create new one after they log in. It's also disconnecting accounts from Twitter and YouTube.

In an email sent to users, Twitch said the data potentially exposed by the incident include names, email addresses and the last IP address users logged in from. It also added if users provided other info such as addresses and dates of birth, those may have been exposed too.

Full credit card numbers aren't stored by Twitch, but other personal data is, such as card type, truncated card number and expiration date, Mashable noted.

Twitch, a live streaming video platform, was acquired by Amazon for $970 million in August last year.

Some tips from Twitch for creating a secure password:

In order to create a secure password, we suggest you use a long random character string with a mix of character types (letters, numbers, symbols). To make it easy to remember, feel free to use words from the dictionary with multiple uncommon string substitutions.

Bad: Applesauce1! - You're using different character types, but the majority of the password is a single word from the dictionary

Okay: ILoveGreenApplesauce - You're using multiple words and lots of characters, but the words are too common.

Good: !70v3Gr33n@pple$auce? - You're using multiple words and lots of characters with uncommon substitutions. Good job.

Best: Use a reputable password manager with a random password generator.