Twitter Overflows With Malware

One in 500 tweets links to malicious software, experts say
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 30, 2009 3:35 PM CDT
Twitter Overflows With Malware
Alex Lifschitz, of Los Angeles tweets from his on-campus apartment at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Henrietta, N.Y. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009.   (AP Photo/Don Heupel)

Twitter is the perfect malware delivery system, enabling cybercriminals to lure users with a quick tweet on a hot topic and a shortened URL that hides a shady website’s identity. One in 500 URLs posted on Twitter links to live malware, says Kaspersky international, which make a program that searches through tweets. A quarter of Twitter messages contain a URL, Kaspersky tells Wired, and half of those are generated by spammers and other Internet lowlifes.
(More malware stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X