Warning To ALL Twitter Users!

lianwei · 13th Apr 2009, 03:45 AM

There is a worm called MIKEY spreading like a bad-ass virus on twitter now and it is going to take over your account and spam nonsense. You will not notice any change initially until you start to see your background change, your url changes and people are telling you that you are infected.

Here’s how you can fix and save your account from the worm:

1) MOST importantly, change your password immediately!
2) Re-update your usernames, bio and URL etc.
3) Change your background back to the default one that Twitter offers then back to your custom one.
4) Clear your browser history and caches.
5) Restart browser.

This should be able to deter you from the Mikey worm and hope it doesn’t mutate to something scarier. It is into its 4th round of attack already, so please protect yourself now!

Graham Maddison · 13th Apr 2009, 06:57 AM

Thanks for the heads up.

I have over a 1000 followers and would hate them to think I would spam them.

Cheers,

Graham

lianwei · 13th Apr 2009, 08:11 AM

Welcome Graham, yeah it would be a nuisance if that happens.. Hope you took your precautions.

Les Tatum · 13th Apr 2009, 08:34 AM

Thanks for the heads up, it would be really nasty to be spamming all our contacts without even knowing it.Thanks again!

GT · 13th Apr 2009, 04:12 PM

Hey, Team:

Thanks, Ben, for the heads-up and for your concern and info, here.

Here are a couple of links to news stories that shed more light on the issue and offer some ways to check whether or not your Twitter account is infected:

cnet news: Twitter cleans up after weekend worm attacks | Security - CNET News Twitter cleans up after weekend worm attacks

Twitterism.com: Twitter Worms: How To Tell If You’re Infected | Twittercism How To Tell If You're Infected

Sheamus at Twitterism tells how to do a quick Twitter search to see if you are infectedby mikeyy:

If you tweet a lot it may take a while to work back through your timeline. An easier way to do this is to open a search query at Twitter Search. Enter your username and Mikeyy within the search box. For example:

sheamus mikeyy

Again, if you’ve been discussing Mikeyy this will show up in the search. But you’re looking for tweets you did not send. If you see any, then you are infected.

He offers a lot more info, too.

GT

Matt Helphrey · 13th Apr 2009, 04:42 PM

Thanks Ben

I appreciate everyone here keeping me informed about viruses. I am kind of ignorant when it comes to these kinds of things. I just assume that AdAware will take care of everything if I run it constantly enough. I know from experience now that that is not true.

Best,

Matt

JamesFrancisIM · 13th Apr 2009, 07:12 PM

Let's hope I get infected.

It'd make me more interesting to my followers! :p

- James.
P.S. Only joking!

. I think the Twitter crew have started to fix and clean this up now.

Jeff Casmer · 13th Apr 2009, 08:37 PM

Hi Lian and GT,

Thanks for this information. Didnt know there was one out there till I saw this post....

Take care
Jeff Casmer

GT · 13th Apr 2009, 09:54 PM

Hi, Jeff:

Looks like Twitter is getting a handle on it and putting checks and balances in place to prevent further occurances. Just one of those learning processes, I suppose. I haven't experienced any problems with either of my Twitter profiles:

- GT Bulmer (gtbulmer) on Twitter
- Green4Life (ThinkGreen4Life) on Twitter

My one concern (for other people) is all of those services that offer to get you 10,000, 20,000, 150,000 followers in 30, 60, 90 days or whatever. When you sign up for those, you have to give them your Twitter ID and password! That sounds a little risky to me!

I question whether those systems work and I wonder if that is how some of the viruses get spread. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm no techie or programmer.

GT

Cynthia Minnaar · 13th Apr 2009, 11:48 PM

Thanks for this useful information guys - I seem to have escaped it so far.

Cheers for now
Cyn

JamesFrancisIM · 14th Apr 2009, 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by GT

My one concern (for other people) is all of those services that offer to get you 10,000, 20,000, 150,000 followers in 30, 60, 90 days or whatever. When you sign up for those, you have to give them your Twitter ID and password! That sounds a little risky to me!

I question whether those systems work and I wonder if that is how some of the viruses get spread. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm no techie or programmer.

GT

Most services on Twitter require those details, as they need those details to access the Twitter API.

However, those services are useless anyway. How many people do you see with 150,000 followers? Very little.

Even so, you'd violate Twitter's spam regulations due to "aggressive following" and your account would be deleted.

- James.

gussie789 · 14th Apr 2009, 02:11 PM

Thanks for the heads up I really appreciate it.

Petruschko · 14th Apr 2009, 06:13 PM

Hi all,

I had it, but after a password reset it seems to be ok again...

All the best!

Peter

richardt23476 · 15th Apr 2009, 10:10 PM

thanks Lianwei for the warning, I will watch out carefully.

Asher · 16th Apr 2009, 12:03 PM

The worm has been eradicated.

Twitter is safe once more. Go back in and tweet...
Oh you people with no friends.

YouTube - Twouble with Twitters: SuperNews!

Asher

Mohammed Hammad · 17th Apr 2009, 03:01 AM

Thanks so much for this notice, I am going to check my account now

13th Apr 2009, 03:45 AM	#1
lianwei Minisite Designer War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Singapore Posts: 603 Thanks: 0 Thanked 60 Times in 31 Posts	Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: There is a worm called MIKEY spreading like a bad-ass virus on twitter now and it is going to take over your account and spam nonsense. You will not notice any change initially until you start to see your background change, your url changes and people are telling you that you are infected. Here’s how you can fix and save your account from the worm: 1) MOST importantly, change your password immediately! 2) Re-update your usernames, bio and URL etc. 3) Change your background back to the default one that Twitter offers then back to your custom one. 4) Clear your browser history and caches. 5) Restart browser. This should be able to deter you from the Mikey worm and hope it doesn’t mutate to something scarier. It is into its 4th round of attack already, so please protect yourself now!
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13th Apr 2009, 06:57 AM	#2
Graham Maddison Graham Maddison War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Khon kaen, Thailand Posts: 1,337 Thanks: 353 Thanked 318 Times in 192 Posts	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Thanks for the heads up. I have over a 1000 followers and would hate them to think I would spam them. Cheers, Graham
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13th Apr 2009, 08:11 AM	#3
lianwei Minisite Designer War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Singapore Posts: 603 Thanks: 0 Thanked 60 Times in 31 Posts	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Welcome Graham, yeah it would be a nuisance if that happens.. Hope you took your precautions.
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13th Apr 2009, 08:34 AM	#4
Les Tatum The 12th Doctor War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Texas, USA. Posts: 75 Thanks: 13 Thanked 13 Times in 12 Posts	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Thanks for the heads up, it would be really nasty to be spamming all our contacts without even knowing it.Thanks again!
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13th Apr 2009, 04:42 PM	#6
Matt Helphrey Super Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Posts: 563 Thanks: 16 Thanked 158 Times in 60 Posts	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Thanks Ben I appreciate everyone here keeping me informed about viruses. I am kind of ignorant when it comes to these kinds of things. I just assume that AdAware will take care of everything if I run it constantly enough. I know from experience now that that is not true. Best, Matt
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13th Apr 2009, 07:12 PM	#7
JamesFrancisIM JamesFrancis.com War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Staffordshire, UK. Posts: 359 Thanks: 80 Thanked 53 Times in 37 Posts Blog Entries: 13	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Let's hope I get infected. It'd make me more interesting to my followers! :p - James. P.S. Only joking! . I think the Twitter crew have started to fix and clean this up now.

13th Apr 2009, 08:37 PM	#8
Jeff Casmer Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 1,037 Thanks: 31 Thanked 250 Times in 192 Posts Blog Entries: 5	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Hi Lian and GT, Thanks for this information. Didnt know there was one out there till I saw this post.... Take care Jeff Casmer
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13th Apr 2009, 09:54 PM	#9
GT VIP Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: Northern Alberta , Canada. Posts: 1,888 Thanks: 2,392 Thanked 600 Times in 415 Posts Blog Entries: 357	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Hi, Jeff: Looks like Twitter is getting a handle on it and putting checks and balances in place to prevent further occurances. Just one of those learning processes, I suppose. I haven't experienced any problems with either of my Twitter profiles: - GT Bulmer (gtbulmer) on Twitter - Green4Life (ThinkGreen4Life) on Twitter My one concern (for other people) is all of those services that offer to get you 10,000, 20,000, 150,000 followers in 30, 60, 90 days or whatever. When you sign up for those, you have to give them your Twitter ID and password! That sounds a little risky to me! I question whether those systems work and I wonder if that is how some of the viruses get spread. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm no techie or programmer. GT
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13th Apr 2009, 11:48 PM	#10
Cynthia Minnaar HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2006 Location: Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Posts: 134 Thanks: 2 Thanked 28 Times in 24 Posts	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Thanks for this useful information guys - I seem to have escaped it so far. Cheers for now Cyn
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14th Apr 2009, 02:11 PM	#12
gussie789 Active Warrior Join Date: 2008 Location: JAMAICA Posts: 81 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Thanks for the heads up I really appreciate it.
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14th Apr 2009, 06:13 PM	#13
Petruschko Moneymaking-business.com Join Date: 2009 Location: Barcelona, Spain Posts: 11 Thanks: 6 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Hi all, I had it, but after a password reset it seems to be ok again... All the best! Peter
	Peter Bott - Follow Me on Twitter! Moneymaking-Business.com

15th Apr 2009, 10:10 PM	#14
richardt23476 Active Warrior Join Date: 2008 Posts: 71 Thanks: 2 Thanked 7 Times in 7 Posts	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: thanks Lianwei for the warning, I will watch out carefully.
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17th Apr 2009, 03:01 AM	#16
Mohammed Hammad HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Egypt Posts: 260 Thanks: 108 Thanked 64 Times in 38 Posts	Re: Warning To ALL Twitter Users! Share on: Thanks so much for this notice, I am going to check my account now