Horrible blog going around about you? Or a Twitter phishing attack?

You may not realise it, but your Twitter account is worth money.

Cybercriminals are keen to compromise your Twitter account, so they can spam out messages (either as public tweets, or less obvious direct messages to your online friends) in the hope that some recipients will click on the links.

What lies at the end of the links can vary. It might be a webpage offering you a new wonder diet, or a pornographic website, or a link to a download designed to infect your computer.

But first they need to commandeer your Twitter account, and the simplest way for them to do this is just to ask you for your Twitter username and password.

Here’s an example of the latest attack that has been seen on Twitter. The message arrives in the form of a direct message (DM), and has a pretty enticing reason for you to click on the link:

Read this yet? horrible blog going around about you [LINK]

In the example above, the DM has come from an account that has…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter or Mastodon to read more of the exclusive content we post.

Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.