If you’re a fan of Buzz Salon in Iowa City like we are, you probably follow their Twitter Feed. If you don’t, you should.
For those of you who do follow along, if you noticed a Twitter by Buzz Salon to you on Saturday, 15 March 2014, from 4:28 PM to 4:42 PM, it was the result of a short-lived malicious hacking of their account.
Based on the number of Tweets that went out during that time period, many people probably did notice the Tweet. Some probably clicked on it. For the few who were tricked into giving out their Twitter username and password, the cycle continues with their list of Twitter friends and followers.
Twitter Phishing Page
If you clicked on the link, it would have taken you to a fake Twitter login page like the one shown here. Click to enlarge the image. Note that this is an image of the page and not the page itself.
We obtained this by using Browserling.com as a means of testing a website link in a virtual remote Internet browser session which helps to avoid infection. Notice that the URL is not Twitter, but an IP address of numbers. Always check the address of the page you land on.
What to Do Now
If you clicked the link and landed on a page like the one above, and then entered your username and password, your account is compromised. You should go to the official Twitter page at Twitter.com and login. Then immediately change your password and make sure nothing was changed in your user profile.
If You Can’t Login to Twitter
If you can’t login to Twitter, it means that the hackers accessed your account and changed the password. You should visit the My Account has been compromised page on Twitter’s website and follow the instructions.
Notify Your Twitter Followers
As soon as you regain control of your Twitter account, you should notify everyone who was sent the malicious link so they can know it was a phishing scheme.
Iowa City Technology Services 