Twitter DM Spam: "Hello Somebody Is Saying Horrible Things About You"
Over the years, there have been so many Internet hoaxes that it has made the act of spreading helpful and cautionary advice to fellow users quite difficult. However, when it comes to Twitter direct message “spam”, this is something that can be acted on.
Twitter is great for being in the “now”, and keeping up to date with the odd bit of humour in a hundred and forty characters or less – but it’s also commonly targeted by the bad guys who like to test out phishing scams and new malicious links.
Phishing attacks have afflicted regular Twitter users since its inception, spreading mostly through the use of direct messages (DMs) that are sent from already compromised Twitter accounts. Read more…
Mother’s Day is here again! Being ritually unable to choose between a bouquet of flowers and bottle of red wine for my mother, I thought this year I’d go for something a little more technological, only to find that she was already miles ahead of me (I don’t even know or care what a T-Hub is, for instance).
For some reason, I found the idea that the era of the stereotypically techno-challenged mum might have passed to be particularly disconcerting. Who would have thought a few decades ago that kids would be online social media adults by the age of 13, and that Mum would be T-Hubbing through the web in the bath?? My generation helped kick-start the Information Age, and now we’re getting lost in it.
So, in order to make ourselves feel better, a colleague and I went around the AVG (AU/NZ) office asking staff what Digital Type their mums fall into, and whether they could share any funny, heartwarming or embarrassing stories with us to help us in our denial. The response was overwhelming: Read more…
Pinterest has become the most exciting new social networking site over the last few months. It’s perfect for the visually inclined, allowing users to “pin” images to their themed boards and share them with other users. Even the AVG (AU/NZ) Team has jumped on board!
People are using the site to do everything from plan their wedding to collecting interesting infographics. Best of all, you don’t have to “follow” other users to see what they’re doing on Pinterest – it’s a big, happy community of amazing images from all over the world.
Read more…
Are you on Facebook? Of course you are – it’s the most popular social networking site in the world for people under 20. And fair enough, too, since it helps you stay in touch with friends, share photos and organise events.
That said, Facebook has led to some pretty dark situations for some young people out there, and it’s a good idea to know how to avoid something bad happening to you.
To help you out, here are AVG (AU/NZ)’s top three tips for safe Facebooking.
Read more…
Would We All Be Streakers Without Privacy?
In a world without privacy surely our lives would be laid bare for all to see, and much like a naked “streaker” running across a football field, you’d have nothing to hide, right? What a world that would be!
However, the reality in society is that whether you like it or not we’re judged (or we feel judged by others). And so there becomes a notion that we should hide certain parts of ourselves from being visible – which is essentially the definition of privacy – an ability to seclude information from others.
The subsequent need for privacy from each of us tends to be very personal and extremely subjective (in both online and offline environments). Everyone provides a different view of what they think is worth hiding, and what isn’t, and this is why some people can strip off naked and run across a football ground in the middle of a game, and why the rest of us would prefer to remain fully clothed; watching it unfold as the police chase them across the field!
Read more…
Increasing concerns about online privacy have forced social media app developers to be more transparent about which information on your profile they can access. For most of us, the days of accepting any old invitation to farm crops or hunt zombies via Facebook are over, partly because we’re more aware of the online privacy pitfalls, and party because we’re just over the fad. However, Facebook (and Twitter) still have thousands of third-party apps, and it’s a good idea to check what they can access on your profile, and remove them if necessary.
Read more…
The latest version of the immensely popular Angry Birds series, Angry Birds Space, has already seen fake imitations – after only being available since March this year.
The infected version has been found to contain a Trojan, detected as “Andr/KongFu-L”.
While the imitation appears to be fully functional, it is actually manipulating what is known as the “GingerBreak” exploit to install malware onto the unsuspecting victim’s device.
Read more…
Late last week we saw evidence of an email phishing scam, pretending to be from Apple, offering discount cards to loyal customers.
Seen below, the scam is similar to previous examples we’ve observed to be popping up over the last year or so.
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Ransom and extortion in the physical world is usually a big deal in Australia – from the Arnott’s Biscuits scandals in the 90s to Madeleine Pulver’s recent fake-collar-bomb ordeal, we’ve been glued to the tube.
What is far less captivating, and what most Australians aren’t aware of, is the growing number of online exploits and extortion hoaxes that we are potentially exposed to every time we sit in front of our computers.
Ransomware, as the industry calls it, is most easily found when trawling the web for its less savoury elements. If you or someone in your family are prone to scouring disreputable sites for the latest unreleased episode of Dexter, or perhaps trying to find that elusive picture of Justin Bieber in the shower, you become a prime target!
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Last month, we reported on a fake AVG scam that was doing the rounds on Twitter, and this month, a new wave of spam has hit the social networking site – pushing advertisements for a free and “proven” anti-virus solution. Please be aware that the link included in such tweets is malicious and the anti-virus is fake!
So far, over 500 Twitter accounts have clocked up over 4000 tweets of this spam message, and that number continues to rise rapidly – with compromised accounts tweeting roughly eight times per second.
If a user follows one of the infected links, they are prompted to conduct a “fast scan” of their system to remove discovered infections (which don’t really exist of course). Further, it has been observed that the malware that poses as the anti-virus updates itself every 3 to 6 hours to avoid detection.
Read more…
