Fresh Twitter Worm Deceptively Compromising Accounts

Security researchers at Mashable have reported that a fresh PC worm tentatively called GetFree is propagating and offers Twitter users a considerably large addition to their online 'friends list.' But the worm actually uses the user's account to send out spam messages to his existing contacts.

Adam Ostrow, a security researcher at Mashable, states that the malware is fast propagating through the social-networking site 'Twitter,' as reported by InfoSecurity on December 31, 2009. By using the URL shortening technique, the worm manages to deceive the site's users. When a user hits the condensed (shortened) URL, a website opens that asks the visitor to enter his username and password, but does very little, the researcher describes.

In a blog posting, Ostrow wrote that he had come across another scam which was perhaps much more destructive since it seemed to distribute malware via YouTube videos. However, the malware performed like the Koobface virus. According to Ostrow, the same type of scam also appeared in Portuguese, as reported by Mashable on December 29, 2009.

It seems that the new worm is related to the "@GetFreeFollowers" Twitter account suspended by the company.

Ostrow said that his organization was still working to know the details of the scam. However, since Twitter followers habitually clicked on trendy topics, it was evident that many people were becoming victims of something daily, he said.

Meanwhile, Twitter users are recommended that they need to guard their credentials and treat all video links with suspicion.

Twitter is one of the favorite social-networking websites of malware writers and spammers. Earlier, the notorious Koobface virus infected Twitter users a number of times.

Apart from Koobface, another computer worm StalkDaily too infected Twitter.com last year (2009), state the security researchers. Because of this worm, any user who visited an infected Twitter member's profile page had his own profile contaminated as well. In the same way, the Mikeyy worm too seemed to use the StalkDaily's technique of infection that affected the social-networking website last year in the month of April, add the researchers.

Related article: Fark.com Files Suit against Suspected Hacker from Fox13

» SPAMfighter News - 1/8/2010