TwitBlock joins fight against Twitter spam
Friday, August 21, 2009
The popularity of micro-blogging site Twitter has generated a growing number of phishing scams, spam and other threats from cybercriminals. A new service called TwitBlock is advertising itself as a way to screen out spam profiles from a user's list of followers.
TwitBlock provides ratings of profiles, with ratings above 20 representing the most likely spam accounts. So far, the rating system is labeling a lot of legitimate accounts as spam, which TwitBlock says will improve as it tweaks its methods.
"The data TwitBlock can gather while these junk accounts are active will be useful battling spam in future, wherever it shows up next," TwitBlock says on its website. "We hope to gain great insight into how spammers are using social networks, and rest assured that we will be sharing these insights."
Recently, web security researchers have noticed spam profiles on Twitter that use image spam, promoting an adult service with text embedded in the profile photo.
Cybercriminals who control networks of compromised PCs, called botnets, have been using Twitter accounts to send out links containing new commands or executables for the botnet.
As TwitBlock noted, "wherever the internet gives us a place to communicate and share, spam and crime will not be far behind."
Related News:
Social networking games profting from malware, moving to iPhone - 3.15.2010
Games like Farmville and Mafia Wars have become increasingly popular on popular social networking sites like Facebook. For users who pay for the service, the threat of malware and spam is minimal. However, those who provide contact information and fill out surveys in exchange for points in the games open themselves up to scareware, spam and other problems.
Web security breaches rock Hotmail - 3.12.2010
Users of Microsoft's free email service are advised by the Redmond, Washington-based software giant to change their passwords and be vigilant as an increase in spam activity on the site has led to web security breaches.
Spam won't go away, but it can be avoided - 3.10.2010
Email filtering works to an extent in ridding computers of spam, but those pesky emails offering millions of dollars for nothing and inexpensive prescription drugs always seem to find a way through even the most stringent filters.
Spammer arrested on extortion charges - 3.9.2010
A California man was arrested and charged with extortion following a threat he made to insurance company New York Life to send spam emails aimed at hurting the company's reputation. Anthony Digati of Chino, California also planned to send spam to the company in hopes of receiving $200,000.
Email filtering recommended as Spamhaus releases spam blacklist - 3.2.2010
Spamhaus, a spam tracking website, has released a list of the worst offenders by domain named currently operating on the web on its domain block list. Aside from being a nuisance, spam is one of the easiest ways for cyber criminals to compromise web security.
|
