The moment Twitter surpassed Digg.com was the moment it became a huge target; success comes with its own perils. While marketers early on were interested in the microblogging platform’s potential, an apparent flaw in the registration process left it wide open to automated spamming.
Enter TweetTornado, first brought to light by ZDNet, software allowing the spammy segment of the marketing world to create multitudes of Twitter accounts and commence with the phishing. Its effectiveness reportedly relies on a fundamental mistake by Twitter developers: not requiring valid email addresses for registration.
The website demonstrates the software with a video, and boasts about search traffic leading to a bogus since suspended Twitter account showing only tweets referring to making quick cash, supposedly posted by a half-naked hottie dupes are sure follow out of animalistic reflex.
It’s likely the creator of the software expected to make more money before word got out. A bog post from January 23 advertised a “pre-launch” special of $49.99 per month, with projected future licensing fees of between $99 and $499 monthly.
We assume the folks at Twitter are on top of this, especially since ZDNet blew the lid off it, but they couldn’t be reached for comment. As Twitter popularity grows, the crew should be prepared to be bombarded with hacks and spammers.
This is the second embarrassing breach in a month. The Twitter crew returned to work after the holidays to a couple of security nightmares, one of which involved a simple dictionary attack on a Twitter admin account. The breach allowed a boastful hacker to access any account of his choosing, including Britney Spears and Bill O’Reilly’s.
