While Twitter continues to encompass the world, there’s a down side — the hacker and cyber crime community has discovered it’s just too easy to exploit … This week: * Prelude to Criminal SEO Attacks * Twitter Phishing Expedition Widens * Policeman Twitter-Phished * Jason Mraz Twitter-Phished * British politicians Twitter-Phished * United Airlines Twitter-Phished * UK Cabinet Minister Twitter-Phished * MLA sorry after Twitter hacking * How to stop phishermen from catching
Prelude to Criminal SEO Attacks
Online security firm F-Secure reports that the latest wave of malicious spam to hit Twitter could be aimed at laying the groundwork for a black hat search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.
Tweets and Direct Messages (DM) containing phases such as “This you??” or “LOL is this you” are linking victims towards a Twitter login phishing page. If the bait is taken and victim enters their password, Twitter’s infamous “fail whale” is displayed and the user is returned to their account. They might not even realize that their account details have been compromised.
F-Secure thinks it could have something to do with some of the recent search engine deals that have been made. Yahoo announced that they’ll begin to include Twitter’s real-time feed into their search results and Facebook is now included in Google’s search results. The bad guys can use social networking trust to enhance their SEO attacks.
continue reading :: www.f-secure.com
Twitter Phishing Expedition Widens
You’ve been hacked! Unfortunately, you may not even have known it. Until someone asks you about your direct message to them where you mentioned that you have been having ‘better sex’ and for ‘longer’ followed by a link to some other site.
Known as the ‘better sex’ phishing attack, this latest hit against Twitter underscores that phishers are hard at work trying to tap various social networking sites in order to access your personal information. Besides swiping your Twitter or other social media site password, malware is placed on your computer and can operate there undetected unless you run a program such as Spybot Search & Destroy to find it out. continue reading :: Matthew C. Keegan | Filed under College News, Social Networking, Technology.
Policeman Twitter-Phished
FRAUDSTERS stole the identity of a top Midland cop to bombard people with offers of porn and Viagra on social network site Twitter.
Internet conmen even tried to get users to reveal their own personal information by pretending to be Chief Inspector Mark Payne from West Midlands Police. continue reading :: www.birminghammail.net/
Jason Mraz Twitter-Phished
With Twitter phishing attacks in the news last week, it’s perhaps unsurprising that musician Jason Mraz has seen his Twitter account compromised.
Mraz’s account is currently sending out links to a Cost Per Action offers site that appears to add $9.99 to your phone bill if you follow through with the request. continue reading :: mashable.com
British politicians Twitter-Phished
British politicians were among those caught up Friday in the latest Twitter-based scam which hijacks users’ accounts to send out sexually explicit messages to friends and followers.
The micro-blogging website has been hit by a wave of so-called “phishing scams”, which lure users to a bogus website where they’re enticed to part with their passwords. The compromised accounts are then used to distribute rogue messages to other users. continue reading :: www.3news.co.nz
United Airlines Twitter-Phished
High-profile accounts worldwide compromised overnight
The Twitter account for United Airlines on Friday morning was among several notable accounts that were hacked into and used to distribute sexually-explicit tweets and links to phishing Web sites. A tweet went out from Chicago-based United’s account which included an offer for “better sex” and a link to a Web site. The message was quickly deleted and an apology message followed. continue reading :: www.nbcchicago.com
UK Cabinet Minister Twitter-Phished
The company is warning people not to surrender personal details to fake Twitter login pages. A phishing attack on Twitter has claimed several high-profile victims including a British cabinet minister and a bank.
Ed Miliband, the U.K’s Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, on Friday found his Twitter account sending out spam tweets promoting sexual enhancement products. continue reading :: Thomas Claburn : InformationWeek
MLA sorry after Twitter hacking
Hundreds of users of the popular web service Twitter may have to change their passwords after an account belonging to an MLA was hacked. Over 700 users “following” the East Belfast representative Dawn Purvis received a message on Wednesday purporting to be from her.
The Progressive Unionist MLA has apologised to those affected. continue reading :: news.bbc.co.uk/
How to stop phishermen from catching
Filed under: Banks, Technology, Fraud, Identity Theft – It seems like the whole world has gone phishing in the last couple of weeks.
Twitter, Facebook – even my own e-mail inbox is full of this crap. continue reading :: Jennie L. PhippsJennie L. Phipps RSS Feed
Network with your peers:
The User Group Network welcomes your press releases and reviews of books and software for publication in the UG Network News and the InfoManager.
POST: www.ugnn.com
Contact: http://www.ugnn.com/contact/…
or, just grab the UGNN feed here 
