Hackers claiming allegiance to the online hacktivist organization collectively called Anonymous, have reportedly hacked into Twitter Inc's servers and stolen the login information of over 55,000 Twitter accounts. Read on to find out how to check if your account has been hacked.

The stolen usernames, email addresses and passwords have been posted in five pastebin.com documents that can be accessed here: page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5. The user names appear to be listed alphabetically, but the best way to check if your own account has been hacked is to search each page using find feature in your browser (CTRL + F for PC, Command + F for Macs).

Airdemon.net reported the hack on May 8, claiming that among the accounts accessed by Anonymous were several verified celebrity accounts. The blog also claimed that they spoke to a Twitter insider who confirmed the hack.

The micro blogging platform is aware of this hack and was taking necessary actions to save those people's account from malicious activity, they said.

The blog post went on to point out that Anonymous has exposed Twitter for gfailing to take the necessary steps to protect its users' date and privacy. All the social media platform needs to do is add a password strength checker during signup while changing passwords. And guide the users to create a strong password. That could save a lot of users' frustration.

The hack most likely occurred on May 7, which is the date the hacked data was posted on Pastebin by an Anonymous guest.

On May 8, Julia Knecht, a Twitter user and Information Systems Student at Brigham Young University, noticed the hack and posted a message about it.

Anonymous just released 55,000 Twitter user names and passwords, she tweeted. #checkyoself #anonymous #infosec.

Twitter.com was temporarily offline for over an hour on Saturday, May 5. At the time the disruption in service was attributed to an internal error. In an official statement, the company claimed, We are currently experiencing site stability issues. We are working to resolve them as soon as possible.