From the
‘
indirect effects of Twitter
‘
files:
LAS VEGAS. Twitter is a great tool for microblogging and conversation. It might also be a platform that is teaching us bad habits that might be making us all less secure.
In a session titled ‘Ready, Set, Attack, at Interop, Roel Schouwenberg
Senior anti-virus researcher
at Kaspersky talked about how users are being exploited today.
In his view, Twitter is making us all a little less secure.
“On Twitter you are expected to trust everything that comes your way, with TinyURLs and links,” Schouwenberg said. “You
just click on something. and you don’t know what’s on the other end, it could be real or it could be a malicious website.”
He added that Twitter is changing user behaviour and users are unlearning the lesson of not clicking on every link they see which is how the first generation of Internet email worms grew in the late 1990’s.
“Twitter is teaching people to trust things that come there way,” Schouwenberg said.
In terms of malware growth, Schouwenberg said Kasperksy is seeing on average 30,000 new samples a day of malware.
I personally click on my fair share of links on Twitter (follow me @TechJournalist), and I can see the potential risk. But it is also important in my personal view to remember that local anti-virus and network anti-virus tools can still protect users. Yes Twitter might be making us forget some well learned lessons, but that’s not Twitter’s fault is it?
Photo:Roel Schouwenberg credit Sean M. Kerner