Facebook users warned over virus resurgence
The 'Koobface' worm is targeting the users of Facebook and other social networks, security experts warn
Facebook, MySpace and Bebo users are being warned about the resurgence of a virus-like worm that will try to infect their PCs when they follow a comment posted on their profile.
The antivirus and security company F-Secure has warned that the new malware – strictly, a worm, which it calls "Koobface" – is targeting Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Friendster, Myyearbook and Blackplanet.
Facebook has posted a warning about the worm on its security page, telling people to reset their password and visit one of its recommended online antivirus scanners, such as Kaspersky or Symantec.
The worm only affects users with Windows-based computers. Apple and Linux systems are unaffected.
Once a computer has been infected, it looks in the owner's system and leaves comments on their friends' areas of those social networks saying things like "Are you sure this is your first acting experience?", "is it u there?", "impressive. i'm sure it's you on this video", "How can anyone get so busted by a spy camera?" and "You're the whole show! i'm admired with you".
The comments, which appear to come from the infected user, link to another site – which pretends to download a video from "YuoTube", but then stalls and says that you need a new version of Adobe's Flash Player. If you click the button for the installation, the Koobface worm is instead downloaded.
That has nasty consequences, says Craig Schmugar of security company McAfee. The worm channels any web traffic, listening for search requests to the major search engines, including Google, Yahooand Microsoft's Live Search.
"Search terms are directed to find-www.net," Schmugar said, which enables ad hijacking and click fraud. The hackers make money from redirecting infected users' searches to their own results, and collect cash from the companies that receive the traffic. Those can include fake antivirus scanners which will instead load more malware onto the user's machine – and charge them for it.
Facebook said it was dealing with the Koobface worm, which first appeared back in June. "We're removing the spam messages and coordinating with third parties to remove redirects to malicious content elsewhere on the web," a Facebook spokesman said.
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