Malware distributors take advantage of Twitter worm's notoriety

It shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone that Twitter is becoming a target for malicious activity. Even before the MIkeyy worm and its successor appeared there were already phishing scammers at work on the popular microblogging site. Now it appears that the bad guys are leveraging Twitter's popularity elsewhere to ensnare victims.

According to Trend Labs, poisoned links have begun appearing that use the Twitter worm hysteria to trick unwary surfers into downloading malware. I tested myself and wasn't able to turn up any links that resembled the one screen captured by Trend, so it's likely that search engines have already started blocking them.

However, Twitter's popularity will jump yet again thanks to Oprah's clumsy attempt to "join the 21st century," so both on and off-site attacks are likely to increase. It's important for new Twitter users - who likely won't be as computer-savvy as long-time tweeters - to be aware of the possible dangers.

To play it safe, make sure you're reading your news from a trusted source and that your system is protected by a capable antivirus program.

Tags: malware, security, trojan, twitter