ESET Social Media Scanner

ESET Social Media Scanner - beta version of the free application to protect your profiles on Twitter and Facebook

International antivirus company ESET announces the release of the beta version of ESET Social Media Scanner - a free app for the protection of users of social networks Twitter and Facebook.

The number of incidents involving the theft of accounts and the spread of malicious links in social networks is increasing rapidly.

In this regard, the company has developed anti-virus software ESET Social Media Scanner to protect the accounts of Twitter and Facebook. The solution scans the user profile for malicious links in private messages or comments, thus providing protection against infection.

Setting a Social Media Scanner in the social network Facebook, the user can manually or automatically scan your posts, and chronicling the news feed for malicious links. The solution also ensures the safety profile of Twitter using advanced scanning mechanisms of shortened links and detecting threats.

Twitter will increase safety of two-factor authentication

The Social Network took note of hacking accounts of large companies.

As a result of compromised account news agency Associated Press (AP) in the Twitter social network developers have decided to raise the level of security and to implement two-factor authentication technology.

Recall that in consequence of an attack by hackers who posted on the page AP reported explosions in the White House and the wounding of President Barack Obama, the Dow Jones U.S. stock market fell more than 100 points.

Twitter developers, decided that such serious consequences can be avoided by implementing a more robust system to protect accounts. So, along with the usual login and password, users will be obliged to confirm the entry by using the test code on their cell phones.

In Twitter fixed malicious campaign

Cybercriminals are using compromised Twitter-accounts for posting links to malicious software, said in an IT company Trusteer. The company said the discovery of a new version of the malware TorRAT, which has traditionally been used to launch attacks against financial institutions.

"Trusteer recently identified a new active configuration TorRAT, aimed at users of the micro-blogging Twitter. Malware applies the attack Man-in-the-Browser to attack your computer's web browser and access to the account in Twitter to create malicious links," - said in a Post an IT company.

In Trusteer said that the infected tweets are sent through legitimate accounts on the network, which greatly increases the level of confidence in the reports and provokes the reader to move on viral link. "Protected from such attacks is particularly difficult, as the organizers of the attacks use sophisticated model of phishing. Users simply follow the Twitter account, completely nepodozrevaya that he may already be compromised," - said in a Trusteer.

Twitter reported a large-scale cyber-attacks on U.S. companies

Twitter Information Security Department reported on  aimed at service cyber-attacks, putting them on a par with similar attacks on other U.S. IT-and media companies. This was reported on the official website of the world's largest microblogging service.

According to the Head of Information Security Twitter Bob Lord, last week the company revealed new data access mechanisms that hackers could use. Experts have identified a cyber-attack, which managed to repel, but acknowledged that hackers could gain access to information 250 000 service users. It is, in particular, the names of users and their e-mail addresses and passwords.

In Twitter said they did not believe the attack an isolated incident, stressing that it carried out the hackers were professionals.

All customers whose data may have been available to them, a letter was sent with the notice. As a precaution, the representatives suggested that Twitter users to change passwords, and other test to see if their password is secure enough. These guidelines apply not only to microblogging service, but also to any other sites.

Twitter reported a mass hacking of the user accounts

About a quarter of a million people  of the social network Twitter were victims mass hacking accounts. Twitter the company notes that been "extremely difficult" hacker attack, and it could well turn up other prominent Internet companies, said on Twitter. The blog Twitter on Friday night there was a message, according to which the service provider microblogging force reset passwords for 250,000 blogs after the automated system recorded the unauthorized attempts to access user information in Twitter.

Among the data that interested hackers have your email address and password crypted version. It is noted that the attack was aimed at a specific group of users Twitter, in particular at the earliest users of the service, and is listed among such holders of the company, its management, investors and employees. "This attack is definitely the work of advanced hackers, and we are pretty sure that this is not the only incident," - said the director of information security Twitter Robert Lord. "The attack was extremely challenging, we also have reason to believe that a number of others were also selected ogranizatsii purposes of attack."

Researcher disclosed information about spoofing attack in Twitter

The owners of the accounts linked to mobile numbers without the PIN code are at risk of being compromised.

According to an independent security researcher Jonathan Rudenberg, users of Twitter, whose settings 'SMS-tweets' at the moment are open, are at risk of being compromised.

According to the expert, the information contained in the software social network vulnerability is that the service does not properly check the permissions of fake mobile numbers to the settings of the user account. Such a way, a remote attacker who knows the phone number of the victim, may conduct spoofing attack and take control over another microblog.

"To carry out an attack is enough to know the phone number attached to the user account. In this case, hackers can send messages with a fake number, "- said the expert.

Rudenberg also said that Twitter developers were notified of the presence of gaps in August of this year. Since then, however, they no effort to eliminate the threat.

Hackers compromised a large number of Twitter users passwords

The Social Network did not provide details on the causes of cracking and its initiators.

The administration of the social network Twitter has sent letters to thousands of users with e-mail notification about breaking their account by third parties. Some accounts were actually compromised, but the others were notified after Twitter inadvertently reset.

It should be noted that at the present time, representatives of the social network refused to provide any data on the causes of break-ins, as well as those responsible for it.

In a statement Twitter states: "If we believe that your account has been compromised, we reset the password and send a notice to the owner account ... This is our normal job, which is to provide reliable protection to users."

A vulnerability in the security system on Twitter

A vulnerability was discovered in the security system on Twitter

The hacker discovered a fundamental security vulnerability in the social network Twitter. The flaw allows attackers to gain unauthorized access to the accounts of Twitter users by brute force attack.

According to Daniel Dennis Jones, whose account was recently hacked, security system uses the Twitter limit login attempts to your account by IP-address. As a consequence, anyone can use an unlimited amount of IP-addresses for password guessing. Jones notes that this could have been avoided if Twitter put a limited number of attempts or used a system of two-factor authentication, as does Google.