Facebook has been hit with a virus that could spread to its 120 million users. The virus has been dubbed "koobface", which tries to gather personal information from users computers such as credit card numbers. The virus dubbed "koobface" sends a message to all the friends of the infected titled "You look just awesome in this new movie". Users who opened the messaged where asked to download a fake update for Adobe flash player, which was actually the virus itself being downloaded and installed onto victims computers. If users attempted to use any of the major three search engines such as Yahoo, Google, or Live search, users would be taken to contaminated sites.
All users are being asked to run their updated anti-virus scanners to check for potential contamination. Facebook has also posted a response to help users clean infected machines on their security web site.
The "koobface" hit MySpace in August, where users had a similar situation where the virus took over their computer. Researchers believe that this is not the last of the "knobface" virus we will see, but the hacker or hackers are improving it.
The articles have been getting very sloppy the last few days.
You mean "last few years" :p
They call it "unprofessional journalism" for a reason
Thanks for the support......Doesn't sound very nice when reading that users are putting down your article.
Thanks for fixing the Knob error, anyway.
didnt your missus chop yours off?
+1 They usually say you need a new codec and thats how they sink it on to your system.
A good deal of my friends are infected by those worms. It sucks.
Last edited by MarcoDigi on 05 Dec 2008 - 23:23
Linux isn't invincible, in fact far from it. It's already been proven that Vista contrary to popular belief is the most secure OS out.
You're not very likely to get a virus on Linux though, are you?
Anyway. A phishing blacklist update for most browsers should effectively stop this, no?
in fact far from it.Fixed. Let's not get carried away.
I would be interested in this "proof". And, in return, let me be the first to at least provide actual facts, such as OpenBSD has had only two remote exploits in its default install in its entire history.
Just Google it. You'd have to be living in a box not to see all the recent articles on studies proving this.
Uh, oh. Can of worms, ex . . . can of worms. You gotta get up real early when it comes to mj.
I was really just referring to the single worm itself. I mean, with a name like "Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.a", I'd imagine it wouldn't be targeting my 'nix machine.
Rubbish.
I just looked on a well known hacker resource site and lo and behold under BSD, a new open BSD exploit marks the top of the list, with everything else being gnu until 6th whereby its ANOTHER BSD exploit, with another 6 openBSD exploits on that small summery page. Not as secure as you would like to believe.
Firstly, a few things I've noticed: this article doesn't specify Vista; that thealexweb used "Vista" instead of "Windows"; and that the arguments here (mine included) seem to address "Windows" - not everyone who uses Windows uses Vista.
From it's inception, *nix maintenance demanded due diligence, whereas Windows maintenance did not. MS set forth to create an easy to use operating system, and they had succeeded, at the expense of making the average user lazy (and/or ignorant.) These symptoms may have persisted from one Windows release to another (to eventually Vista.) *nix, on the other hand, was hard from the get go. The average *nix user had to know enough about their system in order to use certain tools; it certainly wasn't simply a matter of clicking a mouse.
One major advantage that *nix systems had over Windows for decades was limited user privileges; Vista's release certainly ushered in a new era of "MS giving a damn." It's interesting, though, when we consider that, while Neowin patrons are generally more paranoid about security than the average Windows user, a lot of requests have been made on this forum for ways to disable critical, but annoying, Vista 'features.' The average, and I cannot stress that enough, Windows user does not stop to think about the ramifications of installing a piece of software. They want that feature now, disregarding peer (or professional) reviews and alerts. How tempting would it be, then, for that impatient Windows user, to find ways to circumvent the protocols that Vista put in place to protect itself? Vista's security features would be useless. The average user would be at risk, yet again.
Last edited by sentio on 06 Dec 2008 - 04:50
Oh lawd. You believe what you like but it won't become true.
Big mistake, last year a colleague mine show me a "exploit" running in a safe linux configuration (full patched and inside a physic firewall, or you could say, over any "home configuration") as "nobody". The exploit was a perl script enabling to the attacker can browser the files, i don't known if this program is able to write or which information can be accessed.
We was able to found it only because the "program" was running and eating so much cpu resources.
Firstly, a few things I've noticed: this article doesn't specify Vista; that thealexweb used "Vista" instead of "Windows"; and that the arguments here (mine included) seem to address "Windows" - not everyone who uses Windows uses Vista.
From it's inception, *nix maintenance demanded due diligence, whereas Windows maintenance did not. MS set forth to create an easy to use operating system, and they had succeeded, at the expense of making the average user lazy (and/or ignorant.) These symptoms may have persisted from one Windows release to another (to eventually Vista.) *nix, on the other hand, was hard from the get go. The average *nix user had to know enough about their system in order to use certain tools; it certainly wasn't simply a matter of clicking a mouse.
yes but i'd rather be able to use my almost secure box now not nine hours later
Obviously!
*if this doesnt make sense...dont worry about it
P.S. - This is why I don't use those sites... Too big of a target.
Where? When?
Wasn't that just proof of concept?
They were *all* proof-of-concepts.
How stupid do you have to be to think that you feature in a video that you have absolutely no prior knowledge of? Such people are natural victims and always will be.
People that get infected by this kind of thing are just plain stupid, and are a risk to the internet lol
a quote from forest gumps moma "stupid is as stupid does" end quote
This is a phishing worm, used to create a botnet. It's not an OHHH I'm a big bad virus come to eat your files nom-nom-nom. Anti-virus companies make clear distinctions between things like this for a reason.
This is a phishing worm, used to create a botnet. It's not an OHHH I'm a big bad virus come to eat your files nom-nom-nom. Anti-virus companies make clear distinctions between things like this for a reason.
A worms is considered a sub-class of virus, thus making it a virus.
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus.asp
A big NO THANKS from me goes out to all those ridiculous online soap opera crap sites. I thought socializing meant going out and actually talking face-to-face with human beings. I guess I'm living in the past because I'm sure many will argue that this is no longer considered to be the cool way to interact with people anymore.
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