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Twitter tormented by nettlesome worm
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 01:00 IST
An obnoxious computer program that barged into Twitter's network cause four different attacks over the weekend.
The nettlesome program, known as a worm, targeted Twitter's network with attacks starting early Saturday and ending early Monday, according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. The worm was set up to promote a Twitter knockoff, StalkDaily.com.
It displayed unwanted messages on infected Twitter accounts, urging people to visit the Web site. The worm was designed to automatically reproduce itself once its links were clicked on, but it didn't filch any personal information from the more than 6 million people with Twitter accounts, Stone wrote in a posting about the incident. Nearly 10,000 tweets, Twitter messages, had to be deleted to contain the potential damage.
"We are still reviewing all the details, cleaning up and we remain alert," Stone reassured Twitter's audience.
Michael "Mikeyy" Mooney, a 17-year-old high school student who created StalkDaily, acknowledged unleashing the worm in a Monday interview with The Associated Press. Besides wanting to promote his Web site, Mooney said he wanted to expose Twitter's weaknesses.
"I really didn't think it was going to get that much attention, but then I started to see all these stories about it and thought, 'Oh my God,' " said Mooney, who lives in Brooklyn, New York.
But he began having second thoughts about what he had done after reading a part of Stone's posting indicating that Twitter might pursue legal action against its tormentor. "If I get hit with a lawsuit, I am going to have major regrets and a big brick on my back. I am backing off now. Twitter ignored its vulnerability (to worms) so I am hoping they can just ignore me now," he said.
In the mean time, Mooney is retooling StalkDaily.com to accommodate more users. He has temporarily closed the site after getting swamped by the traffic triggered by his worm.
