Early worm gets Twitter
p2pnet news view P2P:- They say the early bird catches the worm, but this time it was the other way around.
At about 2 am on Saturday, four new Twitter accounts began spreading a self-replicating worm.
It was created by “bored 17-year-old Brooklyn resident” Mikeyy, aka Michael Mooney, says PC Magazine.
Mooney owns stalkdaily.com which today is reporting it’s, “undergoing redevelopment”. So, “Stay tuned guys. 
”
The worm was similar to the ill-famed Samy worm “which spread across the popular MySpace social-networking site a while back,”" says a Twitter blog, going on:
“At that time, MySpace filed a lawsuit against the virus creator which resulted in a felony charge and sentencing.”
About compromised 90 accounts were identified and secured and later that afternoon, “a second wave of the worm hit Twitter and this time it was much more intense,” says the post.
Some 100 accounts were infected, and cured and then yesterday morning, the Twitter team found itself fighting the attackers in real time when, “all told, we identified and deleted almost 10,000 tweets that could have continued to spread the worm,” says the site, continuing:
“Late Sunday night and into the wee hours of Monday we fought off a fourth attack. Once again, we secured the compromised accounts and deleted any material that would further propagate the worm.”
Please note, it adds, that no passwords, phone numbers, or other sensitive information were compromised and that Twitter, “will be following up on all fronts”.
Mooney was hoping his attack would result in employment from a security firm, rather than prosecution, says PC Magazine.
PC Magazine – Twitter Squishes Worms; Author Owns Up, April 13, 2009
Twitter blog – Wily Weekend Worms, April 12, 2009
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April 13th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
“Mooney was hoping his attack would result in employment from a security firm…”
…but had forgotten to include his resume with the virus’ payload…
: )
April 13th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
“Mooney was hoping his attack would result in employment from a security firm, rather than prosecution, says PC Magazine.”
Mooney should get his fingers broken with a sledgehammer.
April 13th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
âMooney was hoping his attack would result in employment from a security firmâ¦â
well sure, they still need a junior janitor they can piss on all day.
April 13th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
From Twitter blog: “The worm introduced to Twitter was similar to the famous Samy worm which spread across the popular MySpace”
The obvious question should be why were they vulnerable to a ‘famous’ attack vector? So the kid gave them a weekend sweat and got them to secure their network, give him a break with the bloodsucking lawyers already.