Mac, PC Trojan spreads via Kawasaki Twitter feed
updated 02:50 pm EDT, Thu June 25, 2009
Mac Trojan hits Twitter
A Mac and PC Trojan is being perpetuated through Twitter, accounts say. Guy Kawasaki, a well-known venture capitalist, is said to have accidentally retweeted a link to a porn video, claiming to contain footage of Gossip Girl actress Leighton Meester. Should users actually click the link, they are taken to a website asking to install a video codec; the file is in reality the OSX/Jahlav-C Trojan, or in the case of Windows users, TROJ_JAHLAV.B.
Kawasaki comments that the offending message originated with a NowPublic feed, which his Twitter account is set to automatically rebroadcast. The threat would be minimal except for the number of accounts following Kawasaki, which total over 139,000; a number of less popular Twitter users are also said to have accidentally retweeted the link.
Security firm Trend Micro notes that aside from previously-reported effects, the Trojans are known alter DNS tables, throwing off the connection between URLs and IPs.
p***?
06/25, 03:23pm reply
So Guy Kawasaki accidentally surfs p***?
tonewheel
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: May 1999
what?
06/25, 03:31pm reply
There's 139,000 people who feel the need to keep up with the daily musings of Guy Kawasaki?
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Re: p***?
06/25, 03:33pm reply
If you read, you'd know it was a rebroadcast from another feed...
Because I can't imagine there's too many people who even know who that woman is or watched the show she's on (I think it's on the CW network, but who knows), let alone would be desperate to see her naked.
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Re: p***?
06/25, 03:33pm reply
If you read, you'd know it was a rebroadcast from another feed...
Because I can't imagine there's too many people who even know who that woman is or watched the show she's on (I think it's on the CW network, but who knows), let alone would be desperate to see her naked.
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
figures..
06/25, 04:44pm reply
...since this targets Twitter twits, the danger makes sense, as catering to the least common intellectual denominator, these are the users most likely to fall for something like this.
ZinkDifferent
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
Don't be phished
06/25, 05:13pm reply
At least it doesn't default to automatically downloading and installing the application, but jeeze, people, you CAN learn not to get phished by trojans.
resuna
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
Oh no!
06/25, 07:27pm reply
What's the Internet coming to when it's not even safe to watch p*** on it. Might as well cut the cable...
pastusza
Forum Regular
Joined: Nov 1999
OC
07/29, 06:33am reply
Guy was probably deliberately targeted because of his past association with Macintosh specific mailing lists. I believe he was also a writer for Macworld. It would be easy for someone to look at his tweets to see he retweets something if they were looking for a way to spread a trojan. Especially if he used RT abbreviations or himself had become the victim of malware. Possibly could even be a victim of cyberstalking where they found and accessed his personal computer directly at his home or a laptop while traveling.
In hindsight his public reputation, association with business networking(VC), and social networking make him a prime target for internet organized crime
iBricking.com
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Joined: Dec 2007