With the increase in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, comes the increase in viral activity.
Koobface (anagram of facebook) is the most common, and potentially dangerous you’re likely to see. The ultimate goal of Koobface is to hijack your account, potentially gather information and proliferate itself to your friends list. Luckily, Koobface is easy to spot, and easy to avoid.
Here is how it works.
1. A friend messages to you from your friends list claiming a “funny video” or “Video of you” is posted on the web and attached is a link.
2. Clicking on the link (at this point, don’t click the link) would take you to a 3rd party site that “looks” like a video hosting site.
3. When you get to the bogus site, you are prompted to “download a codec” or update “adobe flash player”.
That last one should be the final red flag. If you did download the file (in this case, the Trojan holding the virus) it would then plant it self in your system and send itself to your friends list when you returned to your account. Shortly after your friends will no doubt let you know in full force you’ve got a problem. The always do don’t they?
If you happen to get this file, all is not lost! It’s a routine removal and we can have you back socializing, farming, chatting and whatever else you’d like!
One final note, only Windows based computers are open to this particular attack.
