As we mentioned earlier today, some third-party Twitter applications may stop working because Twitter has made some big changes this morning regarding how other applications and websites gain access to your Twitter account. Unfortunately, some unfriendly types out there have tried to take advantage of the situation with a fake Tweetdeck update that is actually a trojan horse virus.
Tweetdeck posted a warning on its blog yesterday about the fake update, but today will be the real test, as many of us go searching for the real update.
If you’re seeing what I’m seeing this morning (see above), the only place to go is to the official Tweetdeck website. According to Tweetdeck, there are a number of tweets getting passed around urging users to update to the latest version of Tweetdeck. While many do need to update, the only place users should go to download this update is http://www.tweetdeck.com/desktop/. The tweets about the fake update link to a file named “tweetdeck-08302010-update.exe” and often are from the URL http://alturl.com. The Tweetdeck blog warns that many of the suspect tweets include the following:
TweetDeck will work until tomorrow, udate now!
1.Download TweetDeck udate ASAP!
2.Update TweetDeck!
3.Hurry up for tweetdeck update!
4.Sorry for offtopic, but it is a critical TweetDeck update. It won’t work tomorrow!
Trend Micro researcher Paul Ferguson told Network World that the file is “a generic Trojan horse program that is not detected by most antivirus products”, so installing the fake update could be harmful and go completely unnoticed.
