A malware link circulate through Facebook over the weekend – read on for more info…
If someone you know posts a link on your Facebook page entitled “Coool Video” do NOT click the link! Delete the post immediately then contact the person from whom it came and let them know their account and computer as been compromised. Once an account is infected it reposts the link on each of the user’s friends pages and the cycle continues. The person with the infected account should run an immediate virus scan and once it is determined that the computer is no longer infected they should login to Facebook and change their password. If you’ve made the mistake of using the same password for everything you will want to change those as well. Although it has not been reported that this malware is able to extract passwords it is still a good idea. For tips on creating a secure password see my page on Web Safety.
Several of my Facebook friends were caught in this trap and sadly a little caution on their parts would have helped them avoid the work that follows such infections. The sneaky part of this is that the malware is presented as a link or other post from someone on your friends list and appears to be legitimate until you look closely at the verbiage and the page to which it points. The verbiage is pretty generic and reads very much like most virus/malware texts. The link to which it directs usually has a Top Level Domain (tld) ending in .ro, .de, .tz, .ru, etc., (for example www.ThisLinkIsBad.ru) and the basics of Internet security dictate that you do not click on a link that has a tld ending with anything that doesn’t look familiar. A 2007 study by McAfee’s Site Advisor put together a list of some of the worst Malware tld’s and is worth purusing.
The bottom line in all of this is that the first line of defense against such infections is a healthy dose of skepticism and a dash of paranoia. Be cautious of generic-sounding emails, posts and the like – especially when they encourage you to click a link or download an application. And for goodness sake – make sure you have a reliable, up-to-date virus/malware/firewall application installed!
Thanks for the read and God speed!
Jerod