Do Twitter Phishing Scams Herald the End of Microblogs?

An anonymous reader writes "Twitter's been hit by a big phishing scam. Culture Crash blogger Dan Tynan says this is the end of Twitter's innocence. Will tweets become like email, with two out of every three just worthless spam?"

Comments

No, end of services

[Rinisari]

If Twitter is smart, it will end its auth api or modify it so that folks have to go to twitter to authorize an application. This is the way that Facebook, Yahoo, and OpenID do it, as well.

Re:No, end of services

[AnyoneEB]

How? If the user is willing to give their password to http://twitter.access-logins.com/login/, why wouldn't they give their password to https://twitter.access-logins.com/login/?

SSL logins are a good idea, but I do not see how they address phishing. I guess an EV might have some effect because users might be trained to expect to see "Twitter, Inc." in the URL bar... but if they are not even looking to see if they are on twitter.com when entering their password, I doubt it.

The real problem is sending passwords in plaintext (or encrypted plaintext like SSL, which doesn't help if you have an encrypted connection straight to the phishers) as opposed to some form of challenge response, but that is a hard one to fix since they are so prevalent and the framework to replace them does not really exist.

Let's hope so

[Gothmolly]

terms like "twitterverse" and "microblog" are heralding the end of the sane Internet, so lets hope they get consumed by the vermin of the Internet.

Re:Let's hope so

[Austerity Empowers]

The sane internet died a decade ago. We're in the death throws of the internet-of-the-corporate-hack. Likely our next stop will be the reincarnation of an AOL like atmosphere where a central application or website insulates you from the internet, and provides you with a limited array of things to do.

Re:Let's hope so

[_ivy_ivy_]

The sane internet died a decade ago. We're in the death throws of the internet-of-the-corporate-hack. Likely our next stop will be the reincarnation of an AOL like atmosphere where a central application or website insulates you from the internet, and provides you with a limited array of things to do.

Ironically, it was the connection of AOL to the internet that marked the end of sanity in my book.

That would imply that non spam tweets were useful

[Sycraft-fu]

Thus far Twitter seems like a totally useless idea to me. No, you are not so important that everyone cares what you are doing when you are going shopping.

Not news.

[Ethanol-fueled]

The exact same crap has been going on with MySpace and other viral sites for years. This ain't news. The funny thing is that the idiots who eat that shit up like to say that their profile was "hacked" when they were really just too lazy to look at the damn address bar.

Re:That would imply that non spam tweets were usef

[solios]

Agreed. Much like the "blogosphere," twitter is the kind of thing that is OMFG WORLD CHANGING.... but only to its users.

It's great that the service is there and all, but like facebook, myspace, et al, I really wish people would stop blithering about how INSANELY GREAT it is.

A web gui for the equivalent of an IRC or AIM /away message is about as world-changing as a gui for a MUD. Sure, at least one is successful... but I don't do MUDs or MMOs, so how has it changed my life, aside from a few of my friends disappearing for months whenever a new expansion is released?

That said, a pointless-to-me-anyway service that people I otherwise respect can't shut up about is being crapflooded? Awesome!

Re:That would imply that non spam tweets were usef

[Hatta]

I suppose if you don't have any friends that like to keep up with what's going on in your life and vice versa.

That's what conversations are for. You know, real physical human interaction. Remember that?

Re:That would imply that non spam tweets were usef

[zappepcs]

I'm kind of with you on this one. I remember back in the day, if you spent more than an hour on the phone people thought there was something wrong with you. Back then I thought they were right. If some galactic disaster wiped out electronics on Earth, there would be a lot of people who suddenly lose it because they have nobody to blab to. Twitter gives them this outlet even when they are surrounded by people that really don't want to hear their crap. It's really no different than thinking outloud or talking to walls; an umbilical cord to keep them from having to be alone. They talk about how great it is because they are addicted and cannot function without someone listening to them blabber on about nothing all day. As long as they are talking, they feel somehow important. - Yes, I get the irony

the nature of communication

[girlintraining]

Every method of human communication brings with it the reasons we communicate. Spam, reduced to its essential quality, is broadcasting greed. And that emotion has been around since the dawn of civilization. Every "new" communications medium will have it, and in western civilization with its emphasis on individuality, materialism, and consumerism, it will be all the more prominent. So is it really news that another medium (in this case, twitter) has started to reflect this? Not really.

Concurrently, we've been evolving ways of blocking out this trash -- ad filtering, blocking software, downloading our TV episodes online, etc. There is a real grassroots effort underway to fight back against advertising and an emphasis on "real" communication -- that is, honest opinions by people we trust. In this disconnected world, networks of trust have become more important than ever as a way of not drowning in the sea of greed, self-indulgence, and attention-grabbing behavior. I know people that use gmail for one reason alone: The spam filtering is just that damn good. I have seen people breathe a sigh of relief and leap to hug me after setting up firefox with ad blocking software -- they are geniunely happy.

The real story here isn't twitter turning to a sea of suck, it's that our culture is changing on a fundamental level. And it is doing this without any real organization, without any center. It doesn't seem necessary for a person to be part of a certain subculture or have exposure to a certain trigger to start it; It's a stand alone complex. That is, for those who haven't seen Ghost in the Shell, a phenomenon where unrelated, yet very similar actions of individuals create a seemingly concerted effort.

We're going to see more of this in the years to come.

I don't understand the premise...

[argent]

You can no longer innocently follow a link because some quasi-stranger tweeted it to you without being wary

Let me fix that for you:

You can't innocently follow a link because some quasi-stranger tweeted it to you without being wary

Why would you, or anyone, have ever assumed otherwise?

Re:Innocence?

[jbezorg]

The most merciful thing in the internet, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We surf in a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of lol cats, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The networks, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated bytes will open up such terrifying vistas of content, and of the frightful capsuns therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly lulz into the peace and safety of a new gym pass.

Re:Follow the Money

[Epsillon]

...at which point random malicious Internet users would have an ideal instant-revenge plan for whichever company they don't like very much today. You don't want me to post that response form, do you? You know:

Your method specifically fails to take into consideration:
[x] Douchebags
[x] Assholes
[x] Wastes of oxygen