TweetDeck taken offline due to bug that opens access to the accounts of others

TweetDeck, a popular Twitter client which was officially acquired by Twitter last year, has been temporarily taken offline due to a bug discovered earlier today. Reported by the folks over at TechCrunch, a reader encountered a strange bug which granted his TweetDeck client access to the accounts of other Twitter and Facebook users. When he logged on to TweetDeck today, he noticed that his account was slower than normal and he could post from many more accounts.

Twitter announced that it was looking into the issue, and it has taken TweetDeck offline for the time being. No idea what caused this bug, but let’s hope that it isn’t easily replicated lest TweetDeck users with malicious intent decide to take advantage of it. Have any of you encountered this strange issue before?