Some of Twitter’s business users had their private data exposed

Twitter said that they learned of this issue first on May 20, a month after a similar bug stored Twitter users’ data in Firefox’s browser cache.

Twitter said that the business users’ billing information was “inadvertently” stored in the browser’s cache and possibly others, who shared those computers, might have accessed it. (REUTERS)

In a security incident some of Twitter's business users had their private data exposed, Twitter said on Tuesday and apologised for the breach. The micro-blogging platform said that it has mailed all the business customers to warn them that their information might have been compromised in a security lapse. BBC was the first to report this news.

Some of these businesses customers are those users who advertise on Twitter.

Twitter said that the business users' billing information was “inadvertently” stored in the browser's cache and possibly others, who shared those computers, might have accessed it. This information includes business users' emails addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of the credit card that's tied to the account.

Twitter said that they learned of this issue first on May 20, a month after a similar bug stored Twitter users' data in Firefox's browser cache. This data included direct messages.

Twitter spokesperson Laura Pacas told TechCrunch that Twitter realised that if viewed billing information on ads.twitter.com or analytics.twitter.com the information may have been stored in the browser's cache.

Pacas said that this issue was resolved that very moment it was spotted and the impacted clients had been duly informed. Twitter has also told affected users how they can protect themselves now on. She, however, did not mention how many people had been affected by this issue.

This is the latest security incident Twitter has reported recently. Last year Twitter fixed a bug that allowed a researcher to find phone numbers tied to millions of Twitter users. Besides that, last year the platform also admitted to erroneously having given location data to one of their partners, more data than it should have to business users and also admitted to using phone numbers used for two-factor authentication for serving targeted ads.