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Hackers Manipulate Grader.com of Twitter

Web hackers have attacked Grader.com - a widely used Twitter software that helps to assess the extent of influence of Twitter users. Since the incident, the compromised website has been used to dispatch malicious e-mails.

Citing the event, Rik Ferguson, Security Researcher at Trend Micro, blogged that it looked like another compromise of Twitter services. A large number of Twitter users seemed to have given access to their accounts to Grader.com which had been sending an unauthorized, bizarre tweet, as reported by Guardian on February 11, 2010.

It seems that the attackers are attempting to raise the search engine ranking of Seonix.org a website for making money. Incidentally, the website acquired its domain registration on February 11, 2010.

In the meantime, HubSpot, the parent company of Grader.com, has admitted that attackers have hacked the site.

Dharmesh Shah, Owner of HubSpot, expressed concern because his Twitter account too spammed the Biz Stone e-mail. According to him, this disturbed him since everybody on Twitter strived to establish a trustworthy and faithful community. When the malicious tweets landed into friends' accounts, they compromised that faith. However, Shah thanked his followers for being patient, as reported by Guardian on February 11, 2010.

Shah said that HubSpot's experts had updated the system so that any further distribution of unauthorized tweets could be prevented. Furthermore, they were intensely investigating the problem and making alterations so it wouldn't occur again, as reported by PCWorld on February 11, 2010.

According to the security analysts, the maliciousness of the hacking attack is potentially high. They note that if the attackers wished, they could have attempted to plant malware like Trojan software on computers when users hit the Seonix.org web-link.

Finally, it can be said that the hack demonstrates the reason for a growing inclination of hackers towards social media such as Facebook and Twitter along with the applications that are offered on these websites. If a person could choose and manipulate an application that had users galore through somehow gaining an admission into it, then the result could be a huge monetary benefits, Ferguson said.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

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