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Facebook and its users are having a rough day. A serious Facebook virus is attacking the network’s users.
For the laymen:
If you receive a Facebook message (or a Facebook message alert in your email) with a questionable subject line, DO NOT CLICK THE LINK IN THE BODY!
All of the information in this post was garnered from an awesome article from news.com.au by Narelle Towie.
Questionable subject titles vary from “Maan,yyou’re great!” to “your ass looks not bad in this video”, “Some0ne thinks your special and has a *Hot_Crush* on you. Find out who it could be*” or a youtube link that says ‘”i can see yooooooooo”. These links disguise a trojan worm and should not be clicked.
This trojan comes just months after Facebook said it was working to protect its user from phishing scams.
For the tech geeks, here is a more detailed explanation of the virus from Towie’s article:
FACEBOOK users are under attack from a virus sweeping through the online social network.
The virus is technically a trojan worm that disguises itself as an email from facebookmail.com.
People are enticed to click on a misspelled video or picture link that directs to a malicious web site.
The worm spreads its tentacles by emailing everyone on the victim’s friend list.
According to anti-virus software company Symantec, the trojan works by executing a worm called W32.Koobface.A that searches for cookies on the user’s machine.
If the worm finds the appropriate Facebook cookie, it modifies the users account settings and profile – adding links to malicious sites to trick others into installing the invader.
Facebook discussion boards talk about the trojan directing users to a page which looks like YouTube.
The phony page asks the user to install a video player upgrade.
Installing the fake upgrade allows the worm to work its magic and access files on the victim’s machine while destroying their Facebook account.
Facebook has begun combating the virus by deactivating link when it can.
Facebook has not released an official comment regarding the attack.
**Thank you Flickr user pshab for the awesome Facebook photo.
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This is occurring on other social networking sites as well at the moment. Bebo has been hit by it too.
Should mention this is a Windows-only issue (as usual with viruses)
Look similar to normal email / video threat. What is special
Thanks for the info.
This is my experience in the last few days.
http://journeymanphil.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/facebook-problems-help/
Anyone any ideas?
Phil
I received the link from a friend – not a stranger – and there were no misspellings. No clues that this was a hoax at all. Still getting Trojan alerts from WinDefender. For the self-righteous and indignant trolls out there, I hope you also get duped and that your machine and facebook account are jacked.
I love when a person who uses a Mac talks about how nothing affects a Mac. While the PC has it’s holes, and Mac is more secure because it’s built on Unix, that doesn’t matter.
If the Mac community had the same user-base numbers as PC, it would be just as targeted. Period.
And if you click on a link that has a ridiculous subject line like that, and install weird applications on your computer… it’s the tech-version of natural selection. Oy.
Stupidity = infected
same old scam click on a link (not facebooks issue same old trick with a new skin) bang you are infected
you are not infected via face book
So how the hell does one get rid of it???
good article,make us to be more carefull while playing facebook.thanks
As a user of facebook, this is my first time hearing trojan inside the facebook. Thanks for this info.
Great advice and a lot of useful information in this blog. The recent virus infiltration problem will not be the last. It seems that when a site such as facebook and any other social networking sites have gained popularity where people communicate by the thousands it becomes a playing field for those seeking to intrude the space with harmful and potentially dangerous virus infestation. Sites such as this can help facebook users and others to be cautious when opening their email and to use anti-virus software to gain some measure of protection when hooked up to the internet.
Thanks for helping people within these pages.
Watch out for a new Facebook trojan worm that poses as an official warning from Fb that you’ve been reported. When you open the link for more info, you trigger the worm.
Have about a dosen friends who’ve been hit just the past couple of days. There’s a Fb-group up now dealing with this called You’ve been reported Facebook Hoax.
Best,
Jonas
@johnas, I am one of those hit by the virus….facebook is turning too dangerous.
does anyone have a fix for this?
if u have been infected clear ur computer of any cookies clear ur history scan and remove any viruses on computer and change ur facebook and msn passwords thats the only way peeps failin that back up ur stuff and reload operating software on comp and start again still gota change those passwords tho
Theres an ad on facebook that has it too. It's one of the socialmedia ads. Avast keeps telling me about it over and over and blocking the stupid thing.
I just got a trojan virus from Facebook and all I was doing was sending bumper stickers. Got rid of the virus and got another playing on Restaurant city. Go figure…wtf
it just happened to me
Thanks for the info, I had the same problem.
when i login fb via wifi symbian phone, the screen goes blank and phone restarts. Virus?
Any experiance and solution ?
Enjoyed the site – will check back soon to see what you have added.
Sure it’s a Windows-only issue, but what if you have Wine installed?
I received one from facebook. Had to manually look through my entire registry. The file was called certoko.dll . Once deleted, I am problem free.
Wow that would really suck. I really need to be a little more careful on these kind of websites.
Well recently I have heard less concerns or issues with facebook based virus tricks as I have about facebook users posting time wasting invites to pages that are thinly veiled squeeze pages to online CPA surveys.
http://rapidshare.com/files/429994533/facebook_Se…
Very good!
Bye Bye
Use Antivirus, it's only one good universal answer.