Malware Problem on Twitter Getting Worse

Researchers at security firm Kaspersky, after employing security tools which scrutinize tweets (messages) on Twitter for possible threats, have apparently found that the micro-blogging website is being popularly used as a platform to launch attacks.

Moreover, the total number of malevolent URLs detected so far on Twitter indicates the slow but surely deteriorating nature of the problem, the researchers added.

Studying URLs embedded in tweets, Costin Raiu, researcher and chief security specialist for the Global Research & Analysis Team of Kaspersky Lab stated that after dealing with approximately half-a-million URLs daily along with using a judgment based on a 1-10 scale, he computed that there was a 7-point threat level from malevolent web-links currently embedded on Twitter, as reported by SoftPedia on September 26, 2009.

According to the statistics, the most frequently embedded URL in August 2009 led visitors to an online dating site that was erstwhile connected with malware. Raiu observes that using the data compiled during a recent four-month period, it is evident that the circumstance is gradually worsening.

Remarking about this problem, Symantec Corp another company for web-security stated that condensed (shortened) URLs, which were Twitter Inc.'s key support, had the possibility that malware creators use them for infecting PCs.

Thus, Symantec issued an alert about the risks involved in clicking condensed URLs, which could lead visitors reading tweets to certain unintended videos, photos or stories. The company also stated that although Twitter wasn't the single-most platform where web-surfers could encounter such condensed URLs, it was definitely a widely-used one.

Actually, the problem lies in users who do not know the true destination of the URLs pending their opening the web-link, and this is something that malware writers are capitalizing on, says Symantec.

According to security researchers, the use of Twitter during a recession-struck economy is resulting in rip-offs of unwary Internet users hunting for jobs. Lately, the Better Business Bureau cautioned that employment seekers were being sent tweets telling them that they could earn huge amounts of money via Twitter, working from their home itself.

Related article: Malware Authors Turn More Insidious

» SPAMfighter News - 10/16/2009