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Last year Facebook was infected by a worm named Koobface. All of the good anti-virus programs catch it by now. This February a new variation of Koobface appeared that has snuck by virus scanners and is as vicious as ever. What Koobface does is send you a message through one of your friends’ accounts. You think it is a legit message since you can trust a friend, right? But what you do not know is that the new Facebook Worm is the one that actually sent you the message.
[adblockingdetector id=”1″]The disguised message will usually prompt you to click on a link to see a cool, funny or weird video. When you click on the link it sends you to a site that looks like a YouTube page. The new Koobface is smart enough to grab your Facebook profile photo and username and place it on the fake YouTube page. It then prompts you to install the Adobe Flash Player or an Adobe Flash Player update. This is actually normal if you do not have Adobe Flash installed and you visit YouTube so this is why a lot of people are not initially suspicious of its hidden attack.
For those that follow the on-screen instructions and attempt to download the fake Adobe Flash Player update that is where all the havoc starts. Koobface steals your Facebook login information. It will then attempt to infect all of your Facebook friends by sending them messages using your account. The messages will provide a similar link, attempting to infect them. Facebook account hijacking aside this virus will open up a secret gateway from your computer to other computers. Your computer could be controlled using this secret gateway.
Similar infections like Koobface is not limited to Facebook. You can be infected through all social networking sites like MySpace, Bebo and Hi5 just to name a few. You can also be infected the old fashion way, though email. Be cautious of any and all links your friends or family send you. It does not matter how much you trust them, a virus could have taken over their computer and sending all their online buddies viruses.
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Source: Inquisitr, ComputerWorld
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Tags: Facebook hijack, Facebook Virus, Koobface worm