Security vendors have moved to alert businesses about the emergence of malware carrying Twitter messages, and the reappearance of a rejuvenated Trojan that is popular with phishers.
Finjan Inc this morning said that it would provide free of charge to users of its Secure Browsing plug-in, access to SecureTwitter as a means of defending against the thousands of Twitter messages that seemingly are now embedded with malicious URLs.
The company claims SecureTwitter scans message tweets and provides look-ahead alerts on the safety of URLs showing in other Web 2.0 sites.
“Reading the recent reports about the proliferation of tweets containing criminal malware, we have taken immediate action to release the SecureTwitter plug-in as a free download to all users,” Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CTO of Finjan said.
Meanwhile, security researchers at iDefense have discovered a notorious gang of phishers that had been targeting the bank accounts of smaller businesses has returned after five months out of action.
The gang specialises in launching sophisticated spear phishing attacks that are intended to enable them to steal money from the bank accounts of SMBs.
Rick Howard, Director of Intelligence at iDefense, explained, “These latest attacks, while similar in style to those of five months previously, are greater in force and contain a new style of Trojan.”
The gang operates by sending spear phishing emails that lure recipients, mainly employees of the Fortune 500 and SMBs, into opening an attachment containing a Trojan. The Trojan then captures usernames and passwords and continues to gather information on users’ online bank accounts. Having stolen victims’ credentials, the gang begins to withdraw money.
