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Several security firms are reporting a noticeable rise in the amount of traffic on Twitter that leads users to pages hosting a variant of the Koobface family of Malware. Koobface, known previously for targeting users on Facebook, now linked to various tweets pointing to malicious videos, jumped in volume earlier this month, according to one security firm.
Koobface still making rounds on Twitter.(IMG:J.Anderson)
Kaspersky earlier this month reported that the number of Koobface samples detected jumped from 324 in May to nearly 1,000 by the end of June. By the first weekend of July, the total number of samples discovered moving about online broke the 1,000 mark, and officially took aim at something other than Facebook when it appeared on Twitter.
The tweets linking to Koobface on Twitter are the average “look at my video” sort, offering a link to what appears to be a YouTube page, where the user is asked to load a video codec before the movie will play. The codec, which is, in reality, Koobface, is served up from a variety of sources thanks to crafty scripting by the Malware authors.
“The appearance of Koobface on Twitter is a logical move for cybercriminals,” said Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications from McAfee’s Avert Labs. “Twitter users should be wary of fake tweets, as users of email have had to become aware of spam.”
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