In another attack against social networks, a malware author targeted Twitter over the weekend -- and the worm was still spreading in mutated form on Monday. Security experts warn that Twitter may be battling variants of the worm throughout the week.
The micro-blogging service was struck with a computer virus that plagued tweeters with unwelcome messages on Saturday. Dubbed "Mickeyy," the latest Twitter worm spreads when tweeters click on an affected page linked from a message posted by another infected user. That click sets off a chain reaction that automatically starts posting annoying tweets to other Twitter members. It's a vicious cycle that has the ability to spread rapidly among users not aware of the worm.
Richard Wang, a U.S. manager for SophosLabs, isn't surprised to see attacks against Twitter. Malware creators have a tendency to target popular software and services, he said, and the more people who use a site, the more attractive it is for those who want to spread their message -- or worse, their criminal software.
"Currently this worm is an annoyance to Twitter users, sending bogus tweets and attempting to gather their username and browser cookie," Wang said. "The worm will spread rapidly within the Twitter community until Twitter closes the cross-site scripting hole in their profile code. Of the three sites that have hosted versions of the worm's code, one is still active."
Ode to Samy
The first word of the Twitter worm emerged early Saturday morning, and two additional attacks arose over the weekend. Monday morning witnessed a fourth attack. Twitter reported that none of its members' sensitive information has been compromised in the attacks.
"The worm introduced to Twitter this weekend was similar to the famous Samy worm, which spread across the popular MySpace social-networking site a while back," said Twitter cofounder Biz Stone. "At that time, MySpace filed a lawsuit against the virus creator which resulted in a felony charge and sentencing. Twitter takes security  very seriously and we will be following up on all fronts."
A teenager named Michael "Mickeyy" Mooney has reportedly admitted to creating the virus attack "out of boredom." Twitter wasn't immediately available to comment on what action it might take against the teen.
Twitter's research reveals that four accounts were created at about 2 a.m. Saturday that began spreading a worm. Twitter's security team identified and secured the 90 accounts that might spread the worm by 11 a.m. Sunday, only to discover a second, more intense wave of the worm spreading. Twitter contained the worm, which had spread to 100 accounts. Twitter also identified and deleted malicious content that could work to further spread the worm. (continued...)
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