Twitter attacks 'will continue'

A security firm has warned that recent attacks on micro-blogging site Twitter will continue because they are so easy for cybercriminals to carry out.

The attacks are carried out by around 20 rogue Twitter accounts which target 'trending topics', researchers at PandaLabs said.

Trending topics are subjects that are currently popular among Twitter's community, judged on the number of times they are mentioned.

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A list of trending topics is presented to members on the right-hand side of their profile page, just below the search bar.

By using these keywords and including links to pages that host malware, cybercriminals can easily infect the PCs of Twitter members.

The criminals disguise the links by using various URL-shortening services such as TinyURL and Bit.ly and though Twitter staff delete the accounts as quickly as possible, another account is created by the cybercriminals, PandaLabs said.

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"The ease of carrying out this type of attack leaves us to believe that this will not go away anytime soon," said Sean-Paul Correll of PandaLabs.

The company said that the only way of stopping the attacks would involve a concerted effort between security firms, Twitter and the URL-shortening services.

"We're all going to have to work together in taking these threats down and the good news, in this case, is that I have already received a response from the abuse team at TinyURL and they have responded by killing the redirections on their end," Correll said.