Curious about a certain banned Lady Gaga video? Don't be. A Twitter worm is making its way around microblogging service Twitter, gobbling up passwords of unaware users with the message VIDEO PROHIBIDO LADY GAGA. The message is in just in Spanish currently, but there's no reason why it shouldn't, like Gaga herself, become an international hit. The worm starts as a message notifying users of a banned Gaga video. Users who click on the bit.ly link are taken to a fraudulent YouTube page which asks visitors for their their Twitter login credentials. Once those credentials are entered, the account is hacked, and then that account spreads the worm.
If you're confronted with a similar enticement, ask yourself this: Why would YouTube ask you for your Twitter credentials? Aren't they different sites? Still, it's Gaga we're talking about. Her world is topsy turvy. She wears a meat dress. Anything could happen, right? No, not even Gaga shouldn't trump your common sense. Use a short-url decoder like LongURL, which will give you warnings on shortened URLs. Also, always look at the URL (or address) of a website when you're asked to enter login information. The URL in the Gaga hoax looks nothing like YouTube's, even though the site itself does. It's from a domain that ends in cz.cc.
Of course installing well-rated Internet security software, and making sure it's updated, should also be a part of your Internet security practices. While common sense is the best way to keep yourself safe from social media worms, Internet security software can help with the trojans, spyware, and viruses that can really damage your computer.