Malware rampant on Twitter

Twitter is finding that it's not only popular with users, it's also popular with malware. As many as one in every 500 web addresses posted on Twitter leads to sites hosting malware, according to Kaspersky Labs, a firm based in Moscow that deploys a tool to examine URLs circulating in tweets.

And it's hard to beat the system. Malware is spread with the help of shortened URLs on Twitter which hide the real website address from users before they click on a link. That prevents them from self-filtering suspicious links. The company is examining about 500,000 URLs a day, finding between 100 and 1,000 a day that are hosting malware, according to an article from Wired.com.

Twitter began using a filtering system last summer developed by Google (Safe Browsing API) to detect malicious URLs. The filter works only on URLs that are shortened using Bit.ly, the default and most popular URL shortening service on Twitter. Other URL shortening services will not be caught with Twitter's filter.

So the warning on Twitter and all other social networks is: Be careful what you do. There are easy places to harbor malware and it is hard to detect.

For more on Twitter and malware:
- see this Wired.com article

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