Simon Pegg Falls Victim to Hack on Twitter

According to researchers at Sophos the security company, cyber-criminals recently compromised the Twitter account of Simon Pegg the comedian who starred in the hit movies like Paul, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead.

Actually the crooks posted a message on Pegg's Twitter profile on June 26, 2011, which asked to take down online the freshly designed "Paul" Screen-Saver followed with an instruction to right click for getting test and then pressing it to apparently load the file.

Admirers of Pegg who responded to his messages on Twiiter.com the social-networking site instantly took down the file; however, also downloaded malware that Sophos detected as Troj/VBBanker-A virus.

However, there was no screensaver to get rather a VisualBasic application file crafted for capturing login credentials to help access banking websites so that their owners could be conned off their hard-earned money.

But soon as Pegg found the malevolent post, he alerted over 1.3m fans who followed him on Twitter stating that his account was hacked. He didn't put up a Paul screensaver so no one should download the file, Pegg wrote. Softpedia.com published this on June 27, 2011.

Pegg added apologetically that somebody with malicious intention exploited his account for spreading a PC-virus.

Apparently, Pegg became aware of the short rogue message i.e. the fake tweet when the manager of his formal website alerted him about it.

Says Graham Cluley of Sophos the anti-virus firm, the recent hack among an extended series of famous personality Twitter hacks must act like a realization for other users of the website. According to him, the warning is clearly well-timed for all Web surfers to ponder intensively prior to loading/executing any unfamiliar item onto their PCs. Thinq.co.uk published this on June 27, 2011. Cluley adds that the issue is no hilarious stuff for those following Simon Peg on Twitter, as any of them who takes down or executes a malevolent screensaver file can risk his PC of infection.

Conclusively, according to Sophos, some more celebrities who got victimized earlier with a Twitter break in were Lil Wayne, Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears, Axl Rose and British TV's Kirsty Allsopp.

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» SPAMfighter News - 7/5/2011