Twitter attack targets Bustin Jieber fans

'Funniest video ever' will have the last laugh

Spammers are using Twitter's inexplicable obsession with foetus-faced popster Justin Bieber to spread malware to gullible twits.

A spam run on Twitter this morning, using several dummy accounts, used Bit.ly to mask its true URL – a web page that tries to exploit a browser Java vulnerability to install a keylogger Trojan on vulnerable computers – according to F-Secure.

The spam contains the phrase "haha this is the funniest video I've ever seen".

As the spammers' Twitter accounts have no followers, they stuff their tweets with terms from trending topics instead, so users searching for popular terms will see the infected links.

Today, that means hashtags such as #followerquestion, terms such as 'Olympic Mascots' and, of course, perennial Twitter fave, mop-headed tween warbler Justin Bieber.

Since Twitter essentially banned Bieber from Trending Topics, his fans have taken to calling him 'Bustin Jieber' or just 'Jieber', so the spammers have targeted those terms instead.