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Cyber-crooks targeting social-networking Web sites
By karen | March 5, 2009
Facebook has become prime hunting ground for tricksters and malicious software spreaders because it is the leading social-networking community, with more than 175 million people sharing personal information.
The bad guys know how to see all the things you post. You may be revealing personal information that is extremely valuable to them.
Even seemingly innocent information posted on profile pages can sometimes provide opportunities for criminals. For example, names of grandparents or pets in posted pictures can tip hackers off to answers for typical challenge questions asked before providing information about “forgotten passwords” to online accounts.
WATCH FOR:
1) Fraudulent applications sent warnings that the Web site was shutting down or that they had been reported for violating terms of service which was followed by instruction for correcting the issue.
If people followed the instructions in the bogus messages, software was installed on their computers that stole information and sent similar bogus messages to their friends on the site.
2) Messages claiming to be from Facebook friends wanting to share digital video. Clicking on the link results in a prompt to download viewing software that is actually a computer worm called KOOBFACE.
Then it steals your cookies (store identifying information such as user names and passwords) on your desktop; not just for Facebook but for a half-dozen social networking Web sites including MySpace.
Then, your account is compromised at that point. Using the hijacked cookie, it tries to log in as you, goes through your address book and starts posting messages and comments.
People can reduce the odds of becoming victims by being selective about friends at social networking websites and not clicking on links that take them outside the walls of their online communities.
Computer users are also wise to use unique complex passwords for each online account so if hackers get hold of one virtual key it won’t open other locks.
Topics: blog home, karen lodrick's blog |
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