WebProWorld
If it’s a tool that can make life on the web easier, you can pretty much guarantee that it will be abused by spammers. That is why it should come as no surprise that spammers are now abusing URL shortener services.
Representatives from Symantec’s MessageLabs contacted Murdok to point out that just in the last couple of days, the presence shortened URLs in spam has skyrocketed. The prominent security company claims that shortened URLs now appear in over 2% of all spam.
Tools for shortening URLs have become very popular in the age of microblogging, but shortening a URL to incomprehensible code makes it impossible to know what you’re clicking on.
The now quintessential microblogging service is Twitter, which limits messages sent to a group of followers to 140 characters. This makes it difficult to post URLs with long set of parameters that follow. The necessity to shorten those URLs gave rise to services like tinyurl, is.gd, ping.fm, bit.ly, tweetburner and others.
John Rigas, founder of Adelphia Communications, received a 15-year sentence yesterday after a five-month trial, for using company money for his own personal use, and lying to investors about finances.
