Malicious links, claiming to be an online photo of the Twitter user, are at present being spammed out across the social network. The links point to Russian web pages that ultimately attempt to infect Windows PCs using the Blackhole exploit kit, warns IT security frim Sophos.
At present the dangerous tweets say “It’s you on photo?” or “It’s about you?” followed by a link.
The cybercriminals behind the campaign could change the wording used in the dangerous tweets at any time.
“If you see tweets like this, please do not click on them,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “There isn’t a photo of you waiting at the end of the link – and the accounts that are spreading the messages have either been compromised by hackers or have been created by hackers with the purpose of spreading the dangerous links.”
“There’s a real danger that if Twitter users have not properly protected their PCs, and unless they are warned of the risk, that many people will click on the links without suspecting that they are putting their computer and personal data at risk,” warned Cluley.