Thursday, November 12, 2009

Facebook invaded

I've read that hundreds of Facebook groups have been hijacked. At first, Facebook denied it, but it's true. To read about this, click here.

Now, attackers have released a newer, more powerful version of the Koobface virus. (Koobface is an anagram of Facebook.) More than 300 Facebook groups have been taken over in the last few days. From what I've read, it infects a PC, then sends messages and wall postings to that computer owner's friends. If the friends follow the links, they can end up infected, too.

To protect yourself, do the stuff you've already heard you should do. Keep your virus protection up to date. If a link looks suspicious, even if from someone you know, don't follow it. If you find yourself on a page that is asking you to download a software update, don't do it.

You can read more about it here.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like a new version of the old hismemp worm.

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  2. Great advice, Mojo. Facebook is great, but you still have to be aware of any potential virus infected links. This happened a few yrs ago with myspace, too.

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  3. Why be on Facebook at all? Isn't a blog enough? Just wondering...

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  4. @Wolynski: Facebook isn't quite the same as a blog. In Facebook, you can form groups. I'm a member of a fantasy baseball group (12 of us) and we use it to communicate during the baseball season.

    Here's another example: My sister-in-law just had an operation for ovarian cancer. We have a group that is just family members. There is shared information about how she is doing, photos, etc. etc.

    These could be a blog, I guess, but the members are limited and of little interest to someone outside the group.

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