Finjan SecureTweets checks shortened URLs for safety

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 11 August 2009 06:57

Business IT - Technology

Free software from Finjan helps protect against the delivery of malware via shortened URLs in Twitter and other messages. SecureTweets uses the company's real-time content inspection system.

As we discussed yesterday in the story about the impending closure of tr.im, one of the problems with URL shorteners is that they inherently conceal the true destination of a link.

That's led to the bad guys using shortened URLs in tweets and other forms of messaging as a way of drawing unsuspecting users to sites that deliver malware to visitors.

Twitter has begun using the Google Safe Browsing API to block links to known malicious sites, but it treats shortened URLs as safe.

While some shortening services - notably bit.ly, Twitter's default shortener - also use the Safe Browsing API, others don't. This means that some shortened links still present a threat.

To provide additional protection, security vendor Finjan is offering a free add-on for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

SecureTweets uses Finjan's real-time content inspection technology to provide look-ahead alerts for unsafe URLs whether or not they are shortened.

SecureTweets is available for download from Finjan's web site as part of the SecureBrowsing add-on.