Twitter Becomes Botnet Control

Twitter Becomes Botnet Control

According to traffic management firm Arbor Networks, Twitter has become the latest prey of hackers controlling botnets.   
 

"This appears as legitimate traffic to a legitimate Web site. It is conceivable that this traffic could evade enterprise-level security,” Jose Nazario from Arbor Networks said. 

 

"As Twitter gains an increasingly large audience, it becomes an increasingly desirable target for attack and exploitation. And because organizations may be viewing Twitter traffic as acceptable use, an attack like this one can often come in under the radar,” another security expert said.

 

The tweets being used contain encoded shortened URL links by bit.ly, which redirects to websites hosting malware payload as well as instructions for the bots. 

 

The infection was classified by Symantec as Downloader.snifs. It uses Twitter links to spot Infostealer.Bancos payload. The payload installs a software that illicitly copies bank account information at Banco de Brasil.