RSSTwitter folk preyed on (again)
By Angela Gunn | Published March 17, 2009, 8:02 PM
Abuse of Twitter users is getting to be such a regular thing than a wiser journalist would write a macro for the story, though for once they're not being duped into revealing their passwords. That said, Rik Ferguson at Trend Micro is reporting today that a site sharing a name with a brand-new iPhone application for the popular microblogging service has a nasty little malware payload waiting for the unwary.
The application, TweetFollow, was released just last week. It is safely available from its developers at b1te.com, as well as from Apple's apps store. It is not, however, available from tweetfollow.com, which instead has a JavaScript infection called, in Trend Micro parlance, JS_IFRAME.AKK. The domain was registered on December 31, 2008 to John Dennis of Netus Group, with whom Betanews has left a message requesting clarification concerning a) how the site is connected to the TweetFollow application and b) why the site has JavaScript cooties. We'll keep you posted.
"Abuse of Twitter users is getting so be such a regular thing than a wiser journalist would write a macro for the story, though for once they're not being duped into revealing their passwords."
Perhaps a wise journalist would reconsider the phrasing of that...sentence?
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|No offense, but perhaps someone critiquing someone's phrasing of a sentence should either use a spellcheck or copy & paste.
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|Angela,
As the developers of the TweetFollow iPhone app, we would just like to re-iterate that there is *no* link between the iPhone app and the TweetFollow.com domain.
Please see http://blog.b1te.com/pos...tfollow-tweetfollow-com for more information.
Its killing us that our app has been associated with malware in this way, and we are considering re-branding/re-releasing.
Regards
Matt
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|Hi Matt -- hey, thanks for dropping by. I'm really sorry this is happening to you. You chose a good name and now this! I'll update this story if I hear from Mr. Dennis -- I'm curious to know what's going on with this and really hope we can all get to the bottom of things. And if you do choose the nuclear option (re-release / rebrand), can you drop me a note and let me know? Something like that would certainly be worth covering. Good luck and hang in there.
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|Angela,
Thanks for your support - I will let you know what we decide.
Our problem is that the TweetFollow app is the first in a line of Twitter apps for iPhone we have coming out. Rebranding would be a fairly big issue.
We shall see.
The most tricky part of this has been managing the mis-information spreading on Twitter about the app.
Matt
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|lol, wow thats a creepy tagline 'follow someone you have just met!' or rarely even know :D
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|Artfuldodga,
Hope its not too creepy! The iPhone app TweetFollow is supposed to be useful at conferences instead of handing over business cards.
Matt
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