Yesterday, reports started circulating about a virulent piece of worm spreading through Facebook. The malicious code isn’t exactly new (it started surfacing in August), but has now been altered to strike social networking websites only and is currently making the rounds on Facebook pretty quickly, it seems. The virus can spread fast because they travel through messages which appear to come from your friends.
The Koobface messages carry subject lines like “You look so funny on our new video” or something similar, and contain a link to a video site that appears to contain a movie clip. If the user tries to watch it, a message appears saying that he or she needs the latest version of Flash Player in order to play the clip. This tricks users into downloading a file carrying the malware. An earlier version of the virus targeted MySpace users earlier this year but was quickly eliminated after new security measures were put in place.
Facebook only says on their Security page that users should use the latest antivirus software and change their password if they’ve been affected. The company also appears to be resetting passwords pro-actively and notifying users per e-mail about the possibility of having a virus on board. It’s unclear how many of the social network’s 120+ million users have been hit with the virus.
Best advice remains never to open unexpected e-mail attachments to reduce the risk of infection, even if they come from people you trust.
More information and screenshots can be found here.
(Image courtesy of MaximumPC)
A similar tactic was being used on YouTube – claiming that an ActiveX plug in was needed to view a video.
They managed to create on Pop up on the video page.
The malware was a so called anti virus program originating in Russia.
Of course, if you are using Windows XP or Vista – you can just ‘GO BACK’ to the settings before installing the virus by using the restore option
And it your using a Mac connected to an external hard drive, you can just use the Time Machine and go back years or days before your computer was infected.
Mom’s warning to Little Red Riding Hood to beware of the wolf is always valid. Only nowadays the forest is called cyberspace and the wolf is called malware and we usually do not go visit our grandma there.
People should be more vigilant as these videos are blatantly not from friends. As soon as I receive anything potentially malicious I contact the person sending the message!
I used to do much the same, but I always seem to get virus messages from the same friends, so I guess some people don’t pay any attention and up end perpetually susceptible. There’s no helping some people, I guess…
At this point, anyone who falls for a phishing attack deserves it.
Blaming the victims?
Blaming stupid people :]
Believe it or not, there are people who aren’t on their computer 24 hours a day and they aren’t very tech-savy. That might make them vulnerable, but it doesn’t mean they are stupid or they are the ones to blame. The virus came through a Facebook message, so people let the guard down assuming that a Facebook private message couldn’t be spoofed.
It seems fb is taking some proactive action. Messages sent to my fb inbox over the last two days regarding this spam/virus have been removed, and I did not remove them. They still show up in my iPhone fb app, but are gone from the web. Interesting response by fb…
After a few refreshes on iphone they are gone there too.
What is Facebook doing about? Should we come up with the fix or wait till they ask us to? or http://www.youtechno.info
Just testing the new FB connect. Seems like as good a place as any.
hm…. facebook should make an effort to stop this!
I thought he was dating Koobface virus?
No one tells me anything anymore…
Another facebook connect test.. however I can’t seem to “unconnect”
Ok, there it goes.
Facebook users are idiots. They’ll click on anything and doing anything … Stupid facebook users haha they are pathetic.
Thanks for sharing. I just let my customer base know about the virus. Sure, it’s easy to blame people who fall for attacks like this…but I prefer education vs. slinging insults.
I thought most Facebook users are college educated?! Looks to me, these kids in college aren’t so bright, if they were, they wouldn’t be using Facebook to reveal their personal information and allow Facebook to hold their personal information hostage.
Looks to me, if stupid people get any stupidier, no matter how much education they get, they won’t learn until it hurt them.
Insults are a good punishment to deter them from using Facebook to further hurt themselves.
It’s always amusing to see which of your friends fall for these kind of attacks. And they can’t deny it, you have the proof sitting in your inbox.
Yes, I am getting the emails to watch these videos as well. My case was that of Yuotube! I have posted about it on Business Online at http://treetech...ook-video-scam/ with screen shots.
If Myspace already handled this virus months ago, why are you including their logo in your headline?
another good reason not to be on facebook.