Reddit resets 100,000 account passwords after account hijacks increase

Reddit administrators have performed a password reset on 100,000 different accounts on the website. The site says it is doing this because of a perceived increase in the amount of hijacked accounts.

Reddit administrator KeyserSosa links the increase in hijackings to recent large-scale dumps of usernames and passwords across the web. He emphasizes that Reddit itself has not been hacked, but that the increase in hijackings is said to be due to the dumps and the tendency of users to use the same password on multiple different websites.

Despite not being responsible for the hijackings, Reddit says it is taking steps to combat it. For example, they would have improved their capacity to recognize a hijack and more password resets are to follow in the near future. Furthermore, Reddit will try to limit the ‘huge load’ of unused throwaways, accounts that are often used once to discuss sensitive, personal matters, by possibly making them inactive. Finally, the administrator emphasizes that the security of user accounts is mainly in the hands of the users themselves.