Twitter the online short message service that has become a new tool in communication, being adopted by many news organizations and featured on many television shows will have to contend with more than the whale of traffic weighing down the birdies.
A malicious worm that has mutated over the weekend continues to invade the micro-blogging network. Twitter is taking action to resolve the problem although security analyst believe further mutations will continue to wreak havoc on the system.
Generally the more popular a system becomes the more interesting it becomes a source of virus and worm vulnerabilities which pray on its popularity to exploit it. The worm which was create by 17-year old Mike Mooney “out of boredom” appears as StalkDaily and is responsible for generating thousands of spam messages with the word “Mikeyy”.
Steps can be taken to help protect yourself from the worm if you have been exposed, thanks to PC World’s @danielionescu:
How to keep safe from Mikeyy
First of all, experts advise Twitter users not to click on any links from messages containing the words "Mikeyy" or "Stalkdaily." It is recommended you use third-party Twitter desktop clients like Twhirl or TweetDeck (both PC and Mac) and that you do not use the Web-based version of Twitter, especially for viewing user profiles (as this is where the attack seems to originate).
As an additional security measure, you can disable JavaScript in your browser. Firefox users can use the no-script add-on, which stops any unwanted scripts from running.
How to remove Mikeyy
If you’ve noticed any suspicious activity from your profile that includes the words above, then most certainly you’re infected. It is very important for users not to retweet (RT) any of the fake messages.
Clear your browser cache and turn off JavaScript. Log into Twitter and delete any messages your profile automatically posted that contain the word "Mikeyy". You can turn JavaScript back on so you change your bio and URL, and reset your color scheme from your profile. Additionally, changing your password could be a safe measure.
After all the steps above were completed, log out of your account and you can continue using Twitter via a desktop client.
