Experts warn of malicious Twitter spam

Over 50,000 instances of latest threat, vendor claims.

Security researchers are warning of yet another Twitter-themed malicious spam attack that attempts to install rogue antivirus software on the victim’s PC.

Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker Network said the spam emails are designed to imitate a Twitter Password Reset Notification message.

The spam contains a link to a compromised web site that, when clicked or pasted into the browser, prompts the user to download a malicious executable named password.exe, said the firm.

This executable turns out to be a rogue AV called Protection Center Safebrowser. It has been architected to appear like genuine anti virus software by alerting the user that it has discovered malicious files on the deskptop.

“What distinguishes this rogue anti virus campaign from others we have seen is that it displays on your desktop some of the malicious files it installs,” said Carl Leonard, senior research manager at Websense security labs.

“This makes the attack notification more believable. A business seriously needs to consider a solution that will provide it with real time security in order to mitigate the threat of the modern day cyber criminal.”

The security vendor said it has seen around 55,000 instances of this malicious spam email so far.