Security awareness for Twitter account access

When it comes to granting other people, applications or websites “access” to any online account you maintain, whether the account is on Facebook, Twitter, GMail, or any other site, my advice is to be cautious and proceed slowly. This evening Dean Shareski brought the website HelpIranElection.com to my attention via a tweet. The website exhorts Twitter users to click a link to turn their icons green in a show of support for Iranian democracy. The problem is, I have no idea if this “granting access” to my Twitter account is innocuous or potentially problematic from a security standpoint. I did change my Twitter icon to a green hue, but did so using Seashore rather than the website of Arik Fraimovich, the creator of HelpIranElection.com.

Arik describes himself as a “friendly web-geek and entrepreneur.” His Twitter profile indicates he’s from Israel. That information by itself doesn’t really help answer the security concern at hand, however.

A Technorati search for the website in question currently yields 14 blog results, and none of them appear to be crying “foul” over the site. Perhaps it can be trusted? I’m not sure.

Back in September of 2007, a rash of spam was unleashed when lots of folks clicked email links and provided their email credentials to the site Quechup. The website sent automated emails out to all of the contacts in a person’s webmail account IMMEDIATELY after login credentials were entered, WITHOUT asking permission. That Quechup situation was a heads-up indicating how important it can be to safeguard your login credentials for different websites, and be VERY careful whenever another site asks you to enter them or grant its application ACCESS to your account. Quite often, the fine print is too fine for most people to read so they don’t do it. The results can be dangerous.

Facebook announced last month it has plans to offer “verified applications” which ostensibly would be better security risks for people to use and try. Rogue Facebook applications received a bit of press this past spring.

Is there any harm in following what Doug Symington calls “herd behavior” and changing your Twitter icon green? No. Is there a potential harm if you change your icon color using the web link from helpiranelection.com? I’m not sure. To stay on the safe site, I’m not clicking it and authorizing access to my Twitter account to find out.

Technorati Tags:
twitter, iran, @helpiranelection, #iranelection

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