Phishing on Twitter

It is a rare occurrence that I would stumble across a timely topic. However, it seems that my theoretical academic discussion has turned into a real-world threat. I’ve been working all day, and I finished eating dinner when I see the warning issued by Twitter. The questions that I asked from the last post seem to hit home. So, I felt that a quick response would be appropriate. (Man, three posts in one week!!!) The question of “do identity thieves twitter?” seems to be yes after this threat hit the network. Even though it was using the oldest phishing trick in the book and I hope nobody fell for this trick. However, I believe this is a scary point in the microblogging phenomenon. I think this is the first step in more sophisticated attacks on identity in the Twitter network. Because it is straightforward to post information in this format, we can accidentally expose information that could be a treasure trove for social engineers and identity thieves. This exposure would expand the damage that can be caused by black-hat Twitterer from harmless to harmful. The purpose of this post is not to scare anybody. The objective is to create awareness about this situation, and I hope people will be more careful about what they say on a microblog.