Twitter spam bearing a worm virus is on the loose today trying to lure Twitter users into opening a malicious file attachment containing malware that could take over Windows-based machines, Symantec is warning.
It works through a Twitter message that arrives claiming your friends are inviting you to join them and to check the attachment -- which is a ZIP file --
to find out who, says Kevin Haley, director of Symantec's security response division. "It's a new social-engineering trick," he says, adding the payload is Ackantta.B, a variant on the Ackantta worm discovered in February that has been
used in e-mail spam attacks.
The Twitter account belonging to venture capitalist and Mac evangelist Guy Kawasaki was hijacked yesterday and used to push malware to some 140,000 Twitter users. The attack (screenshot above) included a link to what purported to be a "sex tape video free download" linked to Gossip Girls star Leighton Meester but, after a series of clicks, the end result was a malicious Trojan.
A great and thorough explanation of how the hacker "Croll" accessed key Twitter business documents and accounts in the cloud. Comes down to human practices, chance and security holes.