Phony Holiday Tweets Hide Malware

It’s that time again for holiday cheer, wishes of goodwill to all and an online minefield of potential malware.

Online scams spike at times of increased online activity, whether it’s a major sporting or news event or something more scheduled like the big holidays. As eSecurity Planet reports, the bad guys are at it again, using Twitter to spoil the holiday fun. PandaLabs researchers said they identified more than 300 Twitter accounts that were specifically targeting various trending topics on the site.

Hackers this week have been extremely busy devising new Twitter-based campaigns using popular – but bogus – holiday topics to help distribute malware through the popular microblogging site.

A quick click on the shortened URLs embedded in several thousand tweets with holiday-themed titles, such as “Nobody Cares About Hanukkah” or “Shocking Video of the Grinch,” can infect a user’s PC or mobile device with malware that is then shared among other followers in short order.

Read the full story at eSecurity Planet:


Holiday Twitter Topics Concealing Malware