Twitter tackles phishing problem

In a bid to obstruct the phishing onslaught that has lately been targeting its users, Twitter has announced that it will rout the submitted direct messages through a new URL service called twt.tl, where malicious links will be intercepted and their propagation prevented.

“Even if a bad link is already sent out in an email notification and somebody clicks on it, we’ll be able keep that user safe,” they say. “Since these attacks occur primarily on Direct Messages and email notifications about Direct Messages, this is where we have focused our initial efforts. For the most part, you will not notice this feature because it works behind the scenes but you may notice links shortened to twt.tl in Direct Messages and email notifications.”

Realizing that stolen credentials could be used for access to other, even more sensitive accounts, the Twitter team has rushed to remedy the situation and they should be praised for it. It only remains to be seen if the service will be as successful as they (and we) hope it will be.