EA took it upon themselves to reset my password?

I had both an email and my password no longer valid. I attempted to play when I got home and was told in game I was logged out. I went to log in to find out my password was not valid. Then I checked my email to see if I had any official email from them regarding my password. I didn't click any links in the email as that is my general rule of thumb and went to forgot my password link from here on the forums so that I could change my password.

The email was from EA@em.ea.com and the contents edited to remove personal info:

The password for your Origin account was recently reset because a standard systems analysis indicated that your user name and password may have been subject to suspicious activity. We have no reason to believe at this time that the suspicious activity is the result of unauthorised access to EA’s databases. Instead, such activity could be related to issues with phishing, use of weak passwords, logging in from shared connections or even using the same password on multiple websites. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you and hope you will recognise we’re taking this action to better protect your personal data.

At EA, we take the safety of your personal information seriously. Accordingly, we advise that you change the password on any other accounts where you used the same credentials as your Origin account. There are also other things you can do to help keep your account secure: use strong passwords, be sure to change your passwords at least a few times a year and use a unique password for each of your important accounts.

How would EA know if you use the same password on multiple websites?

I doubt they do since the wording is that may be a reason a password could be compromised. I appear to be the only one this happened to since there has been no replies indicating otherwise. And if that is a legit email it has me concerned with the exact nature of what triggered them to reset rather than the coverall form email.

It sounds like someone tried to compromise your account but it was detected and reset as a precaution. I'd recommend that you change your password to a more secure one (ideally a mix of upper and lower case, plus some numbers/symbols).
Also if you suspect your email address to be compromised, then I'd recommend changing the password on your email account - especially if it was the same password fir both accounts (you'd be surprised how many people use the same password for all of their accounts these days!!) :)

This forum has documented many reports of hacked accounts.

If EA has stepped up efforts to prevent it, and as a result you must create a new password, I'd speculate you got off easy.

Sure beats opening your game to find all donuts spent, ane all limited items sold.

Tip: a LONGER password is safer than a confusing one.

So, "HomerJSimpsonian420" is safer and easier to type in, than something like "MyP4$$w0rD"

For sure I definitely changed the password. The previous one i used uppercase and numbers as well. If it was a third party attempt to access then I am glad they have something in place to prevent it. I also had recently changed my email password. But not real recent. I had no email from ea other than the one I copied to here and the subsequent email I got when I initiated the password change. I also thought perhaps if this was a broader attempt at hacking or something that posting it here would bring awareness. I'm just glad all is fine currently.