X

Worm infiltrates Twitter

Micro-blogging site gets infected with the StalkDaily worm. Details about the worm are scarce, but there are tweets aplenty.

Natalie Weinstein Former Senior Editor / News
I spent a decade as a reporter and editor before joining the CNET News staff as a copy editor in 2000, right before the dot-com bust.
Expertise Copy editing. Curating, editing and reading newsletters of all stripes. Playing any word-related game, specifically Scrabble, Wordle and Boggle. Credentials
  • I've been a journalist for more than three decades. I was a finalist in the 2021 Digiday Media Award for Best Newsletter.
See full bio
Natalie Weinstein

A worm apparently infected Twitter on Saturday.

The worm may originate with the StalkDaily.com site, and Twitter warned people against visiting the site or linking to it.

"If you have been locked out of your acct due to the StalkDaily issue, pls do a p/w reset; we may have reset your p/w for safety," Twitter informed its users on Saturday afternoon.

Details about the worm itself were scarce, but the micro-blogging site was awash in the news by Saturday night. "StalkDaily Worm Runs," "#stalksdaily," and "Twitter hit by" were the No. 2, 3, and 5 top topics at that time.

According to a TechCrunch report, visiting the profile page of an infected user can lead to one's own profile getting infected. The worm also apparently sends spam tweets from the infected person's account that direct others to the StalkDaily site.

The worm apparently hit in the morning, according to Twitter, and then had a resurgence in the afternoon.

StalkDaily's site states that it has nothing to do with the attacks, according to TechCrunch. But that statement apparently is being taken with a grain of salt.