Twitter Suspends Accounts of Users with Infected Computers
Twitter is suspending the accounts of some users whose computers have fallen victim to a well-known piece of malicious software that has targeted other sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
Malware has also spread on Twitter via fake accounts that have been registered using automated tools. Ferguson said Twitter could somewhat guard against that by sending a verification link to an e-mail address during registration, making it more difficult to register dummy accounts en masse.
"That's real low-hanging fruit for them to address," Ferguson said.
Koobface gets instructions from a command-and-control server, which tells the malware which messages to send out. Koobface is dangerous on other levels, however, as it can also steal data from a PC or download other malware.
Security software suites should generally detect early versions of Koobface. However, its creators are crafting variants of the malware to try to escape detection, Ferguson said. They do that by obfuscating Koobface's code and compressing it, which can make it more difficult for security software to spot.
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