Ashton Kutcher and Other Celebrities Caused 2009 Twitter Crime Wave
By Luciana on March 12, 2010 | Computer Security, Barracuda Labs, Ashton Kutcher, Oprah Winfrey, Ashley Tisdale, Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton, Coldplay, Twitter
Barracuda Labs has worked out a reason why criminals targeted Twitter in early 2009. The key of attacks was few celebrities joined the site.
According to the company's analysis , 48 out of the 100 currently most popular Twitter celebs start using the service, including Ashton Kutcher, Oprah Winfrey, Ashley Tisdale, Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton and music group Coldplay.
This led to a huge interest of criminals. They moved in, with detected Twitter attacks rising 66 percent during the period. Barracuda Lab announces that attacks include not only the creation of the rogue applications, but also the abuse of direct messages to spread malicious links, and using direct messages to push spam.
Dr. Paul Judge, Barracuda's CRO said: "As soon as the Twitter user base and activity levels increased, hackers were prepared with novel attacks to compromise users. As social networking, and specifically Twitter, becomes more ingrained in everyday business, it is crucial to understand the nature of attacks happening on these sites."
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