Virus bites Facebook
p2pnet news view Security | Advertising:- A virus first reported to be biting Canadian Facebook users in August has in the past 24 hours apparently hit “hundreds of Boston journalists, ad execs and public relations professionals” who use the site.
“Look you were filmed all naked!”- says the subject header on one version sent automatically from infected accounts to the “friend” list for that account, continues Mass High Tech, stating:
“Clicking the link usually takes users to a page that looks like YouTube, and a pop-up message advises the user to download a Flash plug-in. The download contains the virus, which replicates by contacting everyone on the victim’s Facebook friend list and advancing the hoax.
“Some victims report the bug has taken control of their browser, redirecting Google search links to other pages.”
In November, UK users reported the spread of a similar virus, says the story, which doesn’t name the bug.
But could it be Koobface?
Not only Boston journalists, but Facebook users at large are being targeted by Koobface, a virus which burrows into Facebook’s messaging system to infect PCs, then tries to gather information such as credit card numbers, says the Times Online, noting it’s the, “latest attack by hackers increasingly looking to prey on users of social networking sites”.
Koobface, “spreads by sending notes to friends of someone whose PC has been infected,” says the story. “The messages, with subject headers like, ‘You look just awesome in this new movie,” direct recipients to a website where they are asked to download what it claims is an update of Adobe Systems Flash player.
“If they download the software, users end up with an infected computer, which then takes users to contaminated sites when they try to use search engines from Google, Yahoo, MSN and Live.com, according to security experts. Dozens of versions of the virus have been around since August. Users of MySpace were infected users at one point.”
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Mass High Tech – Boston media members hit by Facebook virus, December 4, 2008
Times Online – Koobface virus worms its way into Facebook, December 5, 2008
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December 6th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
And that kids, is one of the many reasons I switched to mac.