Twitter fights bad guys

Twitter has announced it will begin scanning links posted by users to thwart phishing attacks and the spread of malware on the site.

"By routing all links submitted to Twitter through this new service, we can detect, intercept and prevent the spread of bad links across all of Twitter," blogged Del Harvey, director of Twitter's Trust and Safety team. "Even if a bad link is already sent out in an e-mail notification and somebody clicks on it, we'll be able to keep that user safe."

In a new report by Barracuda Networks, researchers analyzed 19 million accounts and found that the Twitter crime rate – the percentage of accounts suspended each month due to suspicious or malicious activity – rose from 1.2% in 2006 to 12% in October 2009. Oftentimes the links lead to sites pushing rogue antivirus or other malware. Other times, they lead to phishing sites were the user is prompted to give up their Twitter account information, which can sell for as much as $1,000 in the cyber-underworld.

Source: eWeek.