The Dustpan » blt.ly http://TheDustpan.com Discussing Twitter Spam Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:09:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 TwitSweeper blocks Malware and Spam with new tool http://TheDustpan.com/2010/09/twitsweeper-blocks-malware-and-spam-with-new-tool/ http://TheDustpan.com/2010/09/twitsweeper-blocks-malware-and-spam-with-new-tool/#comments Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:21:41 +0000 Dan Reid http://TheDustpan.com/?p=268

TwitSweeper blocks Malware and Spam with new tool is a post from The Dustpan - Discussing Twitter Spam

]]> TwitSweeper — the leading software for detecting spam and malware in Twitter accounts — now detects malware, spam and phishing sites associated with certain shortened URLs. This is a growing problem as Twitter clients use Bit.ly, TinyURL and many other custom white-label shorteners like amzn.to, binged.it, cs.pn, huff.to, natpo.st, ning.it, nyti.ms, on.cnn.com, onion.com, oreil.ly, pep.si, rww.to, slidesha.re, tcrn.ch and yhoo.it, to name a few.

Introduced in July, 2010, TwitSweeper’s new feature has reviewed over one million shortened links to detect spam,  malware or phishing sites. “We see this as a growing problem”, states Doug Braun, President of Emerge2 Digital.  “To date, this new feature has already flagged over 1,900 bad links, with more to come.”

According to Dasient, over 1.3 million web sites host malware, usually without their knowledge and often due to third-party widgets, advertising or applications on their websites being hacked.

“As we all know, where spammers see an opportunity to make money or disrupt commerce, they’ll take advantage of it.” Fortunately, TwitSweeper is slamming the door shut on Twitter malware and spam.

TwitSweeper blocks Malware and Spam with new tool is a post from The Dustpan - Discussing Twitter Spam

]]> http://TheDustpan.com/2010/09/twitsweeper-blocks-malware-and-spam-with-new-tool/feed/ 0 Bit.ly Fighting Spam, Scams & Malware http://TheDustpan.com/2009/12/bit-ly-fighting-spam-scams-malware/ http://TheDustpan.com/2009/12/bit-ly-fighting-spam-scams-malware/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:00:39 +0000 Doug Braun http://TheDustpan.com/?p=133

Bit.ly Fighting Spam, Scams & Malware is a post from The Dustpan - Discussing Twitter Spam

]]> Bit.ly, the popular URL-shortening service and the default shortener on Twitter, announced that it is enhancing its ability to detect spam, scams, phishing and malware in an effort to disable any such bit.ly shortened URLs.

This past week Bit.ly said that it had partnered with the following security organizations to help it detect such undesirable users or target sites and disable their related bit.ly links:

  • VeriSign’s iDefense IP reputation service. The iDefense system is focused on detecting and defeating malware.
  • Websense Threatseeker Cloud service analyzes the web content behind bit.ly links in real time, using heuristic tools and reputation data to flag spammy URLs, malicious content and phishing sites.
  • Sophos, whose behavioral-analysis technology goes beyond blacklists, to proactively detect spam and malware.

This should be a good thing for the Twitterverse and elsewhere online so that more of these questionable links will be rendered non-operational.

Other articles about Bit.ly’s latest move: Bit.ly Blog, Wired Magazine, TechCrunch Blog.

Do you agree or disagree with the direction that Bit.ly is taking this? (reply in the comments)

Bit.ly Fighting Spam, Scams & Malware is a post from The Dustpan - Discussing Twitter Spam

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