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Washington - Computer security firm Sophos warned that a security flaw was causing havoc on Twitter on Tuesday.
Graham Cluley of Sophos said on his blog that the flaw allows messages to pop-up and third-party websites to open in a Web browser just by moving the computer mouse over a link.
Thousands of Twitter accounts were reportedly affected.
Victims of the bug included Sarah Brown, the wife of the former British prime minister who has over one million followers on Twitter, Sophos said.
It said the problem only affected users of the official website, Twitter.com, not third-party programs developed to access the popular microblogging service.
Cluley said that in Sarah Brown's case her "Twitter page has been messed with in an attempt to redirect visitors to a hardcore porn site based in Japan."
"It looks like many users are currently using the flaw for fun and games, but there is obviously the potential for cybercriminals to redirect users to third-party websites containing malicious code, or for spam advertising pop-ups to be displayed," he said.
"Hopefully Twitter will shut down this loophole as soon as possible," Cluley added.
