Tweet URLs may be tiny, but they can also be dangerous

With tweets on Twitter limited to only 140 characters, many Twitterers economize by shrinking lengthy URLs for embedded links, with help from Web sites that specialize in such shrinkage. Now, at least one such site has been hacked.

URL-shortening site Cligs last month sent more than 2 million Web addresses to an entirely different destination. Phishers are also taking advantage of the trust users have in TinyURL Web addresses by using them to mask malicious destinations.

But easy solutions are available, PC Magazine points out. You can easily decode those cryptic URLs by pasting them into—what else—a URL lengthener. One such tool: Untiny. Just cut and paste the shortened URL into the box, and you’ll get the original address. Make sure it’s legit, click, and you’re good to go.

In other Twitter news, the site announced it was suspending accounts infected with a form of the Koobface virus. The suspended sites were sending out “bogus tweets” when the user logged in. The tweets included TinyURLs that sent users to Koobface malware sites. —Donna Tapellini

Comments

[Derrick G]

I've noticed that on Facebook if you right click on them the referred URL appears.

[resim]

Tweet dangerous?