New Malware Attack Finds Way from Twitter to Facebook

Security experts at Twitter, a micro-blogging site, issue alert to the users about a spam e-mail that is reportedly hitting their inboxes, claiming to contain a fake video file that doesn't exist.

The e-mail contains a link to a site "juste.ru", which is, in fact, a video website; however, it has so far circulated thousands of malicious web links via Twitter. The unfortunate users who opened the link have reported that now their Twitter accounts are being used to further circulate the spam link that too without their consent. This indicates that the fake site steals the users' account details.

Security experts observed the cyclic nature of the spam circulation and said that the hijacked account details of a Twitter user are being used to spread the same spam link to the friends listed in his contact list. Thus, it looks quite probable that this scam will soon spread to the Facebook users also.

Meanwhile, Twitter has been quick enough to alert the Facebook users that if any e-mail from friends reading "juste.ru" was received by them, they should better avoid opening the link and visiting the site. It also informed them that by clicking the link they would get encircled in a spamming chain, which would not only hamper them but also the people in their contact list. Facebook users have also been asked to avoid the links, on the site, saying "Best Video" or "Video".

Security experts at Twitter said in a statement that this was probably the most dangerous sort of social networking scam in the history of the site, which simultaneously affects the users of two different networks, viz. Twitter and Facebook. Keeping in view that this malware is able to steal logins from both the networking sites, Twitter is assuming that the malware is working by installing itself on the target machine, as reported by mashable.com on May 30, 2009.

In case users suspect of being affected by the malware attack, they should execute a complete spyware and virus scan on the PCs. They should also change the passwords on both the social networking sites so as to cut down the possibility of phishing or identity thefts in future.

Related article: New Zealand Releases Code To Reduce Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 6/5/2009