Twitter phishing attack spreads via Direct Messages
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Filed Under: Featured, Social networks, Spam
Twitter users are reporting receiving direct messages (DMs) from other members of the network, cheekily asking if it is them who is pictured in a photo, video or mentioned in a blog post.
Various versions of the dangerous messages include:
is this you in the video?
is this you in this picture?
check this out... it's a funny blog post. you're mentioned in it.
Clicking on the link attached to the message can take you to what appears, at first glance, to be the Twitter login page.
But take a closer look, and you'll see that the website isn't the real twitter.com:
If you make the mistake of entering your username and password on the page, in the hope of seeing the picture or video or blog post about you, then you could be handing your login credentials to cybercriminals. They could then use the information to spread scams further across the network, spam out malicious links or use the passwords against other websites where you might use the same login details.
Del Harvey, who runs Twitter's Safety team, says that Twitter is resetting the passwords of users who it believes have been hit by the phishing attack.
@delbius
Del HarveyWe're resetting passwords for affected users; here's the help page to check out about what you should do. support.twitter.com/articles/31796…If you use the same password in multiple places, it only takes one password to be stolen for fraudsters to be able to gain access to your other accounts and steal information for financial gain.
It's also important that you don't use a word from the dictionary as your password. It's easy to understand why computer users pick dictionary words as they're much easier to remember, but as I explain in this video a good trick is to pick a sentence and just use the first letter of every word to make up your password.
(Enjoy this video? You can check out more on the SophosLabs YouTube channel and subscribe if you like)
Password security is becoming more important than ever. Make sure that you're taking the issue seriously, or suffer the consequences.
Follow me on Twitter if you want to keep up-to-speed with the latest threats, and learn how to protect yourself.
About the author
Graham Cluley is senior technology consultant at Sophos. In both 2009 and 2010, the readers of Computer Weekly voted him security blogger of the year and he pipped Stephen Fry to the title of "Twitter user of the year" too. Which is very cool. His awards cabinet bulging, he was voted "Best Security Blogger" by the readers of SC Magazine in 2011. You can contact Graham at gc@sophos.com, or for daily updates follow him on Twitter at @gcluley.
Saturday, 9 July 2011
Twitter phishing attack spreads via Direct Messages | Naked Security
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We are a coalition of organizations and a grassroots campaign of individuals who together are joining to launch a U.S. BOAT TO GAZA. When the U.S. boat, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, sails it will take its place in the next Freedom Flotilla "Stay Human" to partic
About this user
We are a coalition of organizations and a grassroots campaign of individuals who together are joining to launch a U.S. BOAT TO GAZA. When the U.S. boat, THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, sails it will take its place in the next Freedom Flotilla "Stay Human" to participate in the great international effort to break the blockade of Gaza and to end the occupation of Palestine. From the deck of The Audacity of Hope, we will be in a powerful and unique position to challenge U.S. foreign policy and affirm the universal obligation to uphold international law and human rights.
PLEASE CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Professor Colin Cooper - Profile - http://www.icr.ac.uk/
Colin Cooper - Profile
Professor Colin Cooper is a male cancer specialist and heads the UK’s first dedicated research centre for male cancers, the Everyman Centre. His is also Chairman of the ICR’s Section of Molecular Carcinogenesis, which he established in 1989, and holds The Grand Charity of Freemason’s Chair of Molecular Biology at the ICR.
Professor Cooper’s career at the ICR began in 1978 and has spanned almost thirty of the subsequent years. He has made significant contributions to medical science for many cancer types, including human sarcomas, bladder, kidney, testicular and prostate.
He has a special interest in molecular genetics, and over his career has been instrumental in the identification of many new cancer genes as well as genetic factors that put people at a higher risk of cancer. It is thanks to his work and that of his colleagues that the ICR is responsible for the discovery of more cancer-related genes than any other organisation in the world.
This improved understanding of the molecular basis of cancer is helping in the development of new tailored drugs and underpinned the development of specific molecular tests for individual cancer types including the most accurate method known for diagnosing synovial sarcomas. Professor Cooper’s current interest is in the identification of new biomarkers – indicators of a patient’s biological state – that can be used to select the most appropriate care for prostate cancer patients.
Before joining the ICR, Professor Cooper studied science at the University of Warwick and completed his PhD in biochemistry at the University of Birmingham in 1978. After three years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Section of Chemical Carcinogenesis at the ICR, he moved in 1981 to the United States for three years to study how chemicals bound to and damaged DNA. Professor Cooper’s work during this time lead to the identification and cloning of the human met oncogene. He returned to the ICR in 1984 as a Team Leader in the Chemical Carcinogenesis Section, and became a section chairman in 1989. He later gained a Doctor of Science at the University of Warwick in 1991.
Professor Cooper and colleagues began the Everyman Centre in 1998 in an effort to raise awareness of male cancer, address the lack of funding for male cancer research and conduct cutting-edge studies themselves.
“Prostate cancer has always been a very common cancer, but no one seemed to be interested in it. Only about £1 million was being spent on prostate cancer research in the UK, equivalent to about 5p for every man. It was clear that something needed to change and fast,” he says.
Since 1998, Professor Cooper has also combined his research work with teaching at the University of London and in 1996 became its Chair of Molecular Biology.
He has been a member of several important advisory committees, including the Department of Health Prostate Cancer Advisory Group since 2003. He heads up the £3.6m National Cancer Research Institute’s prostate cancer collaboration, which supports research projects on the disease throughout the UK.
Professor Cooper has also held a number of high-level governance positions at the ICR, including membership of the Clinical Research Directorate for a decade and Head of the Haddow Laboratories in Sutton for five years. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science in 2004 and sits on three external review panels and the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals.
Apart from his personal accomplishments, Professor Cooper counts among his greatest successes “training young scientists who have gone on to be leaders in their field and made their own scientific achievements.” In the future, he hopes to see the Everyman Centre - which is funded by the ICR’s Everyman campaign - continue to grow and improve the lives of men diagnosed with testicular and prostate cancer.
“If I had an open chequebook today, I would focus on understanding the causes of prostate cancer so that we can prevent men from getting it in the first place and avoid life changing surgery and drug treatment,” he says.
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