Facebook Under Attack by Koobface Virus

Facebook users being manipulated and attacked by viruses is something extraordinary. However, Virus, Trojan, Malware and spyware have targeted this online social network and utilized this platform to spread spam, deceive users to install Trojan software, etc. Two other viruses dubbed Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.a. and Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b were also reported lately to be widespread through the network and aggressively attacking Facebook’s 120 million users. The Koobface virus automatically sends appealing messages to friends from the contact list via the Facebook messaging system and tempts them to open and read the messages. The spam messages include subject headers such as “Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf on the Street”, “You look just awesome in this new movie”, “You must see it”, etc. The recipients will thence be directed to a website where they are asked to download what it claims is an update of Adobe Systems Inc’s Flash player to their machine. Once users download and install the software, the worms will transform the victims’ machines into zombie computers to form botnets. This will mess up users’ system, steal confidential and sensitive information such as credit card numbers, etc.

Spreading malicious software via social network such as Facebook and MySpace has became a new modus operandi for perpetrators Even though Facebook’s spokesman Barry Schnitt gave reassurance that the percentage of users affected by these viruses is relatively small, McAfee has warned that the threat using this social network is on the rise. Facebook users need to be more careful while having fun in this platform.

If users suspect their account has recently been used to send spam and their machines are infected by Kooface, users are advised to run a virus scan immediately using one of these free online scanners:

Users can manually remove the viruses by referring to Symantec’s removal solution if they are unfortunate enough to have been infected by these two viruses: Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.a. and Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b.