Nasty Virus Links Currently Circulating on Twitter

Many people are used to blindly clicking on links on Twitter, many created by URL shorteners such as bit.ly and tend to do so without much regard for computer security. Criminals capitalize on this lapse and the latest ruse is to post Twitter message “It’s you on photo?” (notice the obligatory broken English) or “It’s about you?” followed by a shortened link. This link of course points to a web page loaded with malware which drive-by downloads a particularly nasty infection called Blackhole.

Now, Blackhole doesn’t directly attack the computer, but instead figures out all the vulnerabilities present in it, then downloads as much other malware as possible to do its dirty work. It sounds horrific and it is, yet, it’s pretty easy to avoid getting infected, by using the usual common sense rules. These include not clicking unsolicited links from strangers and being careful with links apparently sent from your friends. Also, a URL expander should always be used, so that the destination is clear before the link is clicked. Finally, always run internet security software on the computer from a company with a good reputation and ensure the malware signatures are updated several times a day, by using its built-in auto updater. This should hopefully trap bad links and prevent the malware from loading if the site is inadvertently visited.