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'Webcam' Virus Hijacks 750 Twitter Accounts

by Tim Stevens on March 9, 2009 at 11:03 AM


Lately the news has been all about Facebook and the Koobface virus, a nasty specimen that poses as an updated version of Adobe's Flash video player. The virus installs itself on your computer, takes over your Facebook profile, and then sends itself to your friends. Now, that same style of attack has hit the latest social network to make it big, Twitter, compromising at least 750 accounts.

Much like Koobface, this attack is spread via a supposed link to a video, promising footage of a sultry 23-year-old on a webcam (an example message is part of the image above). Visitors, however, find their Twitter accounts compromised, automatically posting messages that direct their friends to the same fallacious link. It's unclear exactly how the accounts were taken over, whether through a virus like Koobface or an attack like clickjacking. Regardless, watch out where you're clicking -- especially when there's porn involved. [From: CNET News]

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Tags: clickjacking, hijack, koobface, security, twitter, twitter virus, twitter webcam virus, TwitterVirus, TwitterWebcamVirus, virus

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