Panda Security has discovered a different attack targeting Twitter users. Cyber crooks have created hundreds of Twitter accounts and published thousands of comments in them under the topic 'PhishTube Broadcast', in relation to a US rock band called Phish.
“In this way, they ensure the topic appears in the 'Trending Topic' list,” comments Jeremy Matthews, head of Panda's sub-Saharan operations. “The result is greater visibility and more user traffic to their comments.”
He says there has been a recent increase in malicious techniques to improve search engine rankings, also known as BlackHat SEO attacks, particularly those aimed at selling fake anti-virus products.
“In this case, instead of a search engine, the Twitter ranking mechanism is the target of the attack, forcing topics to appear in the list of the most popular. Anyone interested in this topic can easily end up on one of the thousands of malicious comments posted.”
The 'Trending Topics' list appears on all Twitter users' interfaces, listing the subjects most talked about. Clicking on this returns a series of results showing comments related to these issues and the users that have published the comments.
Matthews says should users click on the 'PhishTube Broadcast' link, they will see the malicious comments published in the accounts created by the cyber crooks. “These include links pointing to a spoof pornographic Web page. Users that click on any of the items on this page will end up infecting their computers with a copy of the PrivacyCenter fake anti-virus.”
He describes a fake anti-virus as being a type of adware designed to run a spoof scan of the system, as though it were a legitimate product. “It aims at convincing users that their systems are infected, and then offers them the chance to eliminate this supposed malware by buying a premium version of the fake product.”
Twitter's millions of users make it an extremely attractive target for cyber criminals.
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