A nasty worm on Twitter preys on users who click on a shortened link that takes them to a fake anti-virus site for "Security Shield" software. Once there, the aim is to get users to download what is billed as anti-virus protection, but is really malicious code.
If this seems like deja vu, it is: the same worm appeared early last month on Twitter, the short-messaging blog where posts are limited to 140 characters, and website URLs are often shortened to help reduce character count. The worm is using Google's URL shortener, "goo.gl" to entrap users.
"If you make the mistake of clicking on one of the malicious goo.gl links you are ultimately taken to a website which attempts to scare you into believing that you have a virus problem on your computer," writes Sophos' Graham Clueley on the security software company's blog. "You are then frightened into installing malicious code on your PC, and asked to pay money to disinfect your systems."
Clueley wrote that it "isn't yet clear is how the Twitter users found their accounts compromised in this way. The natural suspicion would be that their usernames and passwords have been stolen.
"It certainly would be a sensible precaution for users who have found their Twitter accounts unexpectedly posting goo.gl links to change their passwords immediately," the same advice Twitter itself is offering.
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2 weeks ago
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