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Warning: Hackers Using Sexy Girls to Infect Twitter Users

posted on August 5, 2008


Some people get on my case because I don’t follow everyone on Twitter, who follows me. Well, for one thing, I’d never keep up with 3000+ Tweeple, but I also live by my mantra of building meaningful relationships with social media–I don’t care about any popularity contest.

Well, there’s another reason why you–and I–should think twice before we add a friend to Twitter. Viruslist is reporting how easy it easy for hackers to trick Twitter users into downloading Trojan software.

In this case, a sexy girl, an enticing link, and voila!

If you click on the link, you get a window that shows the progress of an automatic download of a so-called new version of Adobe Flash which is supposedly required to watch the video. You end up with a file labeled Adobe Flash (it’s a fake) on your machine; a technique that is currently very popular.

In reality, this is a Trojan downloader that proceeds to download 10 banker Trojans onto the infected machine, all of which are disguised as MP3 files.

Please, be careful who you add as a friend–on any social network–a hacker may not be as obvious as the one above.


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  • http://seologia.com.ar Seologia

    The title has a double meaning. Lol. :P

    Seologia’s last blog post..Un poco más acerca de Google Knol

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    Yeah, I noticed that after I published. I hope Twitter users are not now worrying about catching an STD from Twitter. ;-)

  • http://my-creativeteam.com/blog Harry

    Let’s hope everyone practices safe Twittering.

  • http://www.therealestatebloggers.com/2008/03/24/why-banks-need-to-work-hard-communicating-with-potential-foreclosures-to-avoid-serious-damage-to-homes/ Tom Royce

    I only friend people that I either know in the real world, have watched in the spaces that I cover, or have a close ratio of following to followers.

    Hot babes with 100-1 following ratio’s have no interest to me.

    Tom Royce’s last blog post..By: Cash For Keys – A Way To Keep Foreclosures From Being Trashed ? The Real Estate Bloggers

  • http://www.profy.com/2008/08/05/twitter-gets-more-malicious-ways-to-hurt-you-viruses/ Svetlana Gladkova

    Andy, I don’t think that there’s a chance of catching the virus by simply looking at the profile or following it – from what I’ve read on Kaspersky Lab’s blog you need to click the link in the tweets from that account to start downloading the trojan. It’s very similar to fishing emails and general spam – you are safe unless you click the links.

    And the tweets have been deleted from the account already (though I don’t see why the account itself still exists).

    Svetlana Gladkova’s last blog post..by: Svetlana Gladkova

  • http://www.TheEntrepreneurMaker.com Nick Blackman

    Ive had more that a couple of these requests myself. The days of auto-follow are over! Quality tweets and ratio are my guidelines now.

    Thank You Andy!

    http:\\twitter.com\nickblackman :-) Im safe BTW!

    Peace,
    Nick

  • http://www.nickstamoulis.com/seo-consultant.html Nick Stamoulis

    Thanks Andy for the heads up. I have not seen this as of yet, but I am sure it is a matter of time before I do…

  • http://marketingdeviant.com MarketingDeviant

    Hackers are getting smarter in the marketing aspect…

    MarketingDeviant’s last blog post..Having a Mind of Steel

  • http://www.fiftystudio.com Fifty Studio

    Never, never judge a book by its cover! :-)

  • Pingback: The hot girl on twitter doesn’t really want you either

  • http://www.WebTrafficROI.com WebTrafficROI

    hackers are going the spammer way..getting ahead of the race

    WebTrafficROI’s last blog post..How do I find a good Affiliate program ?

  • http://www.greatpriceshere.com Nicole Price

    This has been happening in Orkut too quite frequently. I am seriously thinking of quitting all these networks as they do not add any value to my professional life.

    Nicole Price’s last blog post..Best Companies to Work for

  • http://www.futurefactory-software.com Warenwirtschaft

    I never used twitter, and I won’t use it anyhow. I don’t need it. But it’s very interesting how hackers fake twitter users. The best way of being safe from them is to don’t use it, I think.

  • http://twitter.com/jtoc72 Jeff O’Connor

    Oh, thank God I’m gay!

  • http://www.jordankasteler.com/utah-seo-pro-blog/ Utah SEO Pro

    I call this the “MySpace Effect”. How lame.

    Utah SEO Pro’s last blog post..Mobile SEO – SMX Local Mobile 2008 Presentation

  • http://www.gadgets4nowt.co.uk PS3

    I’ve never used Twitter (hides in embarresment (: ) – does it suffer from auto friend adder problems like most of the other social media out there?

  • http://symbiancorner.blogspot.com Symbian

    It’s bad for Twitter that they replacing all links to tinyurl format.

    Symbian’s last blog post..Nokia Chat – new location based messenger

  • http://www.free-games-console.co.uk Ps3

    Happens on all social media websites. Damn Hackers

  • http://oneyearmillionaire.net Millionaire

    some people just can’t hold themselves back… i use twitter sparingly… i still don’t completely see what all the rage is…

    Millionaire’s last blog post..Richkiss.com (Meet Rich People Online)

  • http://www.doreplica.com john

    hahaa, you should be careful when you are online,

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