MUMBAI / BANGALORE, India – February 25, 2010 – IT security and data protection firm, Sophos, is warning about the latest wave of cyber crime spreading across Twitter - a phishing attack designed to steal login details and hijack accounts.
Messages asking "This you????", followed by a link to a bogus Twitter login page, have caused such a scare on the micro-blogging network that the phrase is currently a hot trending topic on the site.
For the benefit of millions of Twitter users, Sophos has made a YouTube video, which journalists and bloggers are free to embed on their own websites, demonstrating the attack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFVqfgnZV6M
The attack, which is the latest in a storm of phishing attacks that have occurred on Twitter since the weekend, is designed to steal passwords and could use hijacked accounts to spread money-making spam campaigns, steal identities, and distribute malware.
The "This you????" messages are accompanied by clickable links which take unsuspecting users to a fake Twitter login page. Users, who are tricked into believing they might see a picture or information about themselves, may enter their username and password without thinking about the possible consequences.
"Twitter users have been battered with phishing attacks in the last few days, all taking advantage of people's curiousity," said Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos. "But if you click on the link and enter your details you could be taking your online identity and handing it over on a plate to hackers. They can then take your username, email address and password and not only use it to spread more attacks via Twitter - they can also try your credentials at many other websites - potentially opening your other online accounts to abuse. Anyone hit by this kind of attacks must change their passwords immediately."
"Crime on social networks is on the rise, we saw a 43% rise in the number of people reporting being phished via such sites in the last 12 months, and the way things are looking that figure can only go up," explained Cluley. "As the social networks grow in size and power there will be more and more hackers attracted to commit crimes via them."
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About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use, and that deliver the industry’s lowest TCO. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs—a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards. Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, UK and Boston, US. More information is available at www.sophos.com
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