IT security and data protection firm, Sophos, warns cyber criminals are once again targeting micro-blogging site Twitter in order to steal login details and hijack accounts.
According to Sophos, a storm of phishing attacks struck Twitter over the weekend, using hijacked accounts to spread money-making spam campaigns, steal identities and distribute malware.
"Twitter users have been battered with phishing attacks in the last few days, all taking advantage of people's curiosity," says Brett Myroff, CEO of regional Sophos distributor, Sophos South Africa.
Sophos explains that 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.
Myroff adds: "If you click on the link and enter your details, you could be handing your online identity over to hackers. They can not only use your username, e-mail address and password to spread more attacks via Twitter, but can also try your credentials at many other Web sites - potentially opening your other online accounts to abuse. Anyone hit by this kind of attack must change their passwords immediately."
He points out that crime on social networks is on the increase. “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. As social networks grow in size and power, more and more hackers will be attracted to committing crimes via these sites."