Melbourne, 14 July 2009 – AVG (AU\/NZ) Pty Ltd, the Australian, New Zealand and South Pacific distributor of the award-winning AVG Anti-Virus and Internet Security products, today warned that online criminals have learnt via Twitter how using small\/tiny URL links can increase click-through rates and entrap more people. Twitter users should protect themselves from online spammers who have begun using the platform for criminal activities.
\nAVG (AU\/NZ) Marketing Manager, Lloyd Borrett, said Twitter\u2019s recent global surge in popularity has encouraged spammers and other online criminals to take advantage of the tiny URL links used within Twitter to target unsuspecting users.
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\u201cTo some people small or tiny URL links look more legitimate than longer links. However, they can actually hide suspect links from people who know what to look for. Small URLs make scam URLs harder to spot for Twitter users, thus the criminals get more people clicking through to their malicious web pages.
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\u201cThe cyber-criminals have learnt from this. Over the past month, we\u2019ve seen a significant increase in the number of spam e-mails using tiny URL links to camouflage links to poisoned and scam web pages. The bad guys now know they\u2019ll get more click-throughs if they use small URL links.\u201d
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Borrett said AVG LinkScanner offers users the best defence against the use of small URL links to obfuscate poisoned links on Twitter and in e-mails.
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\u201cAVG LinkScanner provides guaranteed protection by scanning the web page of every link users click on. LinkScanner resolves the small URL and scans the final web page in real-time, instantly checking it for any potential threats before allowing the browser to display the web page. If a threat is detected, the user is warned.
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\u201cSo AVG users can continue to click on links from Twitter and in their e-mails with confidence. Because AVG LinkScanner is already integrated into AVG\u2019s suite of award-winning Anti-Virus and Internet Security products, existing users are fully protected,\u201d he said.
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AVG Technologies has a \u2018neighbourhood watch\u2019 approach to LinkScanner research, encouraging its 80 million-plus users to opt-in and feed back information to AVG. This assists AVG in warning users about suspect scammy pages.
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AVG LinkScanner is also available as a free standalone protection layer for any personal home computer, regardless of what other security software people are using. Users can download AVG LinkScanner at www.avgfree.com.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Melbourne, 14 July 2009 – AVG (AU\/NZ) Pty Ltd, the Australian, New Zealand and South Pacific distributor of the award-winning AVG Anti-Virus and Internet Security products, today warned that online criminals have learnt via Twitter how using small\/tiny URL links can increase click-through rates and entrap more people. Twitter users should protect themselves from online<\/p>\n