As reported by Gizmodo, Twitter accounts used by CBS News were compromised on Saturday - and began serving up bogus news stories with links to malware.
Accounts belonging to the shows “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours” were compromised. CBS reclaimed control of the accounts quickly, but not before several "stories" with malware-laced links had already gone out.
Tweets such as "General Dempsey calls for #Obama's arrest under new anti-terror laws #48hours." began appearing on both accounts. Several such stories - themed around the President’s supposed support for terrorism - also included links to remote sites which tech sites such as AllThingsD reported as serving up malware.
The Tweets were deleted within hours. The official 60 Minutes account posted a message saying: "PLEASE NOTE: Our Twitter account was compromised earlier today. We are working with Twitter to resolve,” and "A message that was posted earlier to this account was not written or sent by @60Minutes or its staff." The official CBS News Twitter account later admitted that it had "experienced problems" on the two show accounts.
ESET's Stephen Cobb says, "If you are suspicious about a news story you see breaking on social media, go to a legitimate news website and see it you can confirm it."
Cobb's in-depth guide to how to avoid clicking on the wrong links shared via social media is here.
