Koobface virus attacks

Researchers identify malware existing in popular add-ons for Facebook, Vimeo, Instagram and others that are commonly used in browsers from Google and Microsoft.

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Koobface, which already made the rounds on MySpace, is now worming its way through Facebook. The Koobface virus uses Facebook's private messaging system to infect computers via a shared video. Unsuspecting users will see a video link shared by an infected friend with the message, "You look just awesome in this new movie. Once the virus is installed, it will try to grab sensitive data off your PC, like credit card numbers. In a way this a very old virus; it operates much like mass-mailing worms that used to infest Usenet and e-mail lists.

In a way this a very old virus; it operates much like mass-mailing worms that used to infest Usenet and e-mail lists. But it's proving an effective tactic on social networks where private messages from friends seem more trustworthy than traditional e-mail, which even the most neophyte web users have come to distrust.

With its some million users, Facebook is not only a potentially lucrative target, but it's well into the mainstream, which means more gullible, less internet-savvy users for virus creators to prey on. The virus watchdog blog for McAfee labs reports that Facebook is aware of the Koobface attack and is already working to remove the spammed links from its system.

If users click on any of the bogus videos placed on a compromised web-page, it redirects the entire traffic to a bogus YouTube page. This YouTube page hosts koobface, attempts to install malware and executes an exploit remotely.

Rik Ferguson, Senior Security Advisor at Trend Micro, states that there is a little difference in the new attack from the normal Koobface assaults that emerged earlier in , as reported by V3 on November 10,