Facebook, social networks face virus risks
NQUIRER.net
First Posted 19:09:00 07/13/2009
Filed Under: Technology News
MANILA, Philippines - Users of social networks like Facebook and MySpace remain at risk of being infected with the Koobface virus, first detected as early as last year.
More than 500 variants of the Koobface were found across computers worldwide just for the month of June, according to software security firm Kaspersky.
The latest figure is actually higher than 324 variants of the virus Kaspersky detected in May.
Koobface was discovered nearly a year ago and initially spread through Facebook and MySpace. Infected computers send fake URLs through postings on popular social networking sites.
When the URLs are clicked the website starts downloading the worm to the new target computer and the process starts over.
The virus, therefore, is seen to endanger Facebook and MySpace users as well as those on other social networks like hi5, Friendster and Twitter.
Stefan Tanase, a researcher for Kaspersky Labs, warned that the popularity of social networking sites has provided hackers new platforms for stealing personal data.
"June (2009) marks an important milestone in the evolution of social networking viruses. The activity we've seen this month exceeds by far any other month in the past", he said.
He advised users of social networking sites to be extra careful when opening suspicious or “out-of-place” URLs. Users are also advised to update security software more frequently to better protect PCs.
Alexander Villafania
Facebook, social networks face virus risks - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
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