Twitter Under Attack

No, it’s not under attack by rebel’s in Iran. It’s the same old malware attacks using popular topics or trends on Twitter.

It’s natural as soon as something on the Internet is popular, it will be the target of greedy, bad guys.  These days most of the buzz is about Twitter and sure enough Twitter is the new playground for evil tricksters.

The popular attack continues to be the old “You have a virus. Pay us to remove your virus or else”.  The virus comes in the form of an rogue AntiSpyware program or what we I call ExtortionWare. Some other attacks will just trick you into entering a name and password.

Rule #1: Just because the tweet or messages comes from someone you know and trust, there’s no guarantee it’s really them.  If there is a link they want you to click on, contact them and confirm they still have control over
their account.

Twitter Verified Account

But what about a verified Twitter account?
Twitter has a new system called “Verified Accounts”. This program is only meant as a way to confirm public officials and celebrity accounts. It does not mean the account is secure. Many celebrities are probably the worse at picking secure passwords. In addition, the more followers they have the more likely they’ll be the target of hacker attempts so these account may be the most dangerous to follow.

Rule #2: Follow rule #1

Rule 3: Don't fall for the "Get more followers" scheme. Promises to get you more followers will ask you for your Twitter name and password.  Once they have your password, they can send any message that appears to come from you including links to malware.

Even the Apple MacIntosh is under attack.  See this following video from Sophos.