Twitter Botnet Facilitator Tool Identified
A researcher with anti-virus software vendor Sunbelt, Christopher Boyd, has recently discovered a tool that facilitates in building armies of bots which take their instructions from specific Twitter accounts, as per the news published by The Register on May 13, 2010.
The tool, known as TwitterNET Builder, creates malicious executables which hackers can forward to the systems of other users. They can either send mails with file attachments or send the instant messages bearing links to the infected executables.
On opening the files, user's PC gets infected with malware that allows cybercriminals to manage it through a Twitter account. Moreover, networks of infected PCs (called botnets) can then flood websites with traffic, which causes them to distribute denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by means of User Datagram Protocol (UDP). It can successfully open a webpage, halt all bot activities and eliminate connecting bots. They can be used to distribute junk e-mails and a higher number of malware.
