AfterDawn: News

Teen created Twitter virus out of 'boredom'

A Brooklyn teenager has admitted to creating two viruses that have hit the popular micro-blogging site Twitter. Why did he do it? To promote his own website, and of course, because he was "bored".

The "StalkDaily" and "Mikeyy" worms exploited unpatched holes in Twitter and spammed unwanted messages on thousands of user's pages, promoting the teen's web site as well as telling "Twitter please fix this, regards Mikeyy."



The teen, Michael "Mikeyy" Mooney, added: "I usually like to find vulnerabilities within websites and try not to cause too much damage, but start a worm or something to give the developers an insight on the problem and while doing so, promoting myself or my website."

Mooney added that his site was quickly growing in popularity "because of the worm."

Twitter, for its part, has closed the hole.

"We've taken steps to remove the offending updates, and to close the holes that allowed this 'worm' to spread," Twitter added in a prepared statment. "No passwords, phone numbers, or other sensitive information were compromised as part of this attack."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Apr 2009 16:42

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• 8 comments

• mrklean

  If you didn't know that the main reason that people code viruses and such is boredom you haven't been around much. I know it's my main reason I do much of anything on the computer.

  12.4.2009 17:46 #1

• toked

  Awwww so considerate!

  12.4.2009 18:18 #2

• atomicxl

  So if this was the real world, this kid basically committed thousands of acts of vandalism. I hope they charge him accordingly. They need to start throwing the book at anyone making viruses and worms to send a message of major consequences for anyone who does it.

  13.4.2009 17:14 #3

• toked

  Originally posted by atomicxl: So if this was the real world, this kid basically committed thousands of acts of vandalism. I hope they charge him accordingly. They need to start throwing the book at anyone making viruses and worms to send a message of major consequences for anyone who does it.Why the hell does this need to be converted to a real world incident? This is a dumb misconception that seems to be adopted by everyone. It is a real world incident as is and must handled on its own terms.

  13.4.2009 23:35 #4

• cart0181

  Originally posted by mrklean: If you didn't know that the main reason that people code viruses and such is boredom you haven't been around much. I know it's my main reason I do much of anything on the computer.I disagree that this is the main reason. It may be a reason for some, but a minority for sure. The main reasons are for the usual suspects: Money, Power and eventually Fame.

  14.4.2009 03:18 #5

• adamryan

  Quote:Originally posted by atomicxl: So if this was the real world, this kid basically committed thousands of acts of vandalism. I hope they charge him accordingly. They need to start throwing the book at anyone making viruses and worms to send a message of major consequences for anyone who does it.Why the hell does this need to be converted to a real world incident? This is a dumb misconception that seems to be adopted by everyone. It is a real world incident as is and must handled on its own terms.
  Toked > atomicxl.

  14.4.2009 06:41 #6

• neonjoe14

  Originally posted by atomicxl: So if this was the real world, this kid basically committed thousands of acts of vandalism. I hope they charge him accordingly. They need to start throwing the book at anyone making viruses and worms to send a message of major consequences for anyone who does it. that is a really ignorant compliment u stated and if you haven't noticed this site promotes steeling dvds and your part of it. i beleive that you have not idea what your talking about or are a grumpy old mad that believes he can say something to make others feel worse. and by the way this is all coming from a 13 year old entering high school

  17.4.2009 18:28 #7

• ilikefree

  We do not steal (note the correct spelling) We back up our collections if I lend my good DVD to the spotty teenager next door it won't matter so much if he returns it with scratches,or other things, on it if I have a back up copy made.Backing up is not stealing it's good practice and most computer experts recommend doing it. By the way "expert" where x is the unknown quantity and spurt is a drip under pressure.
  would probably apply here.
  

  shit doesn't just happen there's always an arsehole involved

  18.4.2009 02:55 #8