Porn links on high profile Twitter pages lead to Trojan installation

On Tuesday a new series of hacking attacks were reported by Twitter users. This time cyber criminals used hacked accounts to post fake links that direct followers to the malicious destinations where their PC may get infected with the malware. Among those accounts used to lure unwitting users into visiting fake websites was the Twitter page of former Apple Macintosh evangelist Guy Kawasaki.

The message posted on his page on Tuesday ran: "Leighton Meester sex tape video free download!" This link directed Kawasaki's followers to a fake porn site where online criminals try to install a nasty Trojan horse program on victim's computers. Both Mac and Windows users turned vulnerable. While Kawasaki, a well known entrepreneur who is now a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, was not the only person whose Twitter account was used for malware attack, with nearly 140,000 followers he's the most high-profile.

Talking on how the accounts could be compromised some experts assume that Kawasaki and others might have fallen victim to previous attacks.

According to Gary Warner, director of research in computer forensics with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Trojan link posted by Guy Kawasaki has been followed by more than 1,600 people.

Rik Ferguson, a researcher with Trend Micro said: "If you can take over an account that has a couple of thousand follower then you can get a much better return on your investment"

While Kawasaki admitted on his page that the posted message was not his he still didn’t remove it.