Twitter lifts security researcher ban

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Twitterhas now re-activated the account of a leading security researcher it suspended recently after suspecting him of promoting the spread of malware.

Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer for security company F-Secure, found his account out of action after Twitter detected a malware link on a post he created some two months previously.

Back in August, he alerted his followers to the existence of the rnyspece website, urging them not to visit it. Then, just last week he found his Twitter account had been suspended, with those visiting it receiving a page informing them that his account had been removed following ‘suspicious activity.”

Twitter has since unsuspended his account, although a message received by Hyppönen suggested that the link had been picked up in a direct message (DM) even though that wasn’t the case. It is believed that this was the result of an automated Twitter script.

“Really? Banning me for that? Two months afterwards? This sure makes no sense to me. But at least they've now uncensored my tweets and made my account accessible again,” Hyppönen wrote in a blog post.

“Apparently they still think I'm dangerous, as they have now removed all my followers. As well as everybody I was following. So while the episode might be over otherwise, it did leave a slight dent in my follower count…”

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