Twitter Attacked To Spread Malware

Hackers using Twitter to spread malware disguised as Adobe Flash files

Social networks are under attack as well as the micro-blogging site Twitter with the intent to spread malicious malware to users of those services. We recently posted that worms were discovered to have come from the popular social networks MySpace and Facebook. Now it is Twitters turn. Knowing that no one is completely safe from surfing or utilizing social sites including Twitter, it raises several questions.

Will users of these sites trust that each network is doing what they can to keep them safe? Should they check security bulletins or online security alerts before using a social or blogging network site? Should computer users install additional security software to protect themselves? While you may have an answer in your head to all of those questions, the fact remains that these sites will be attacked again in the future.

Kaspersky Lab stated that Twitter is now big enough to be a distribution method for malicious software. Does this mean every “big” website or network is a target. Yes, any large site that has the potential of “touching” a large number of computer users on the internet is a viable target for malicious attacks. In the case of Twitter, it was a Twitter profile that had pornographic video of the Brazilian pop star Kelly Key (image above). That should be just enough to gain the attention of thousands of users don’t you think? Once the link in this profile was clicked on it would display a window that shows the download of a new version of Adobe Flash (to view the porn video) only this is not a legitimate version of Flash. The so-called new version of Flash that you are downloading is a Trojan downloader designed to download 10 bankers onto the infected computer all disguised as MP3 files.

If you ever encounter this situation it is advisable that you remove the Trojan infection immediately by utilizing a removal tool. It is always a good idea to closely monitor the type of files that are downloaded onto your computer and the source of each download.