Koobface Virus Gets Smarter Targets Twitter and Facebook Users Alert
Koobface, a virus that targets computers via social networking sites, is apparently back and with added sophistication. A typical Koobface attack – like the one that surfaced on Twitter last month – comes via a link that purports to be an interesting video (i.e. – someone tweets “my home video” with a link to what looks like a YouTube page). Those videos then tell you that you need to upgrade your Flash player – which, many legitimate videos often do too. Upon “upgrading,” however, the user is infected with the virus.Recently, Twitter has started cracking down on known malicious links, but now, those intent on spreading the virus have added a few twists that will make Koobface more challenging to protect against.For starters, instead of the same short URL showing up over and over again, which would be easy for Twitter to diffuse quickly, the virus is randomizing the short link. Additionally, the links now appear to be directed to a well-designed Facebook lookalike page. On top of that, the message directing people to the video is being randomized, making it a bit less obvious that its malicious.While this does indeed make it a bit trickier for Twitter to automatically block malicious links, for users, the best advice is to check the actual URL in the address bar before viewing a video after following a link. If it*s not Facebook.com, YouTube.com, or another popular video site, odds are it*s Koobface. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, TalajReviews: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphotoTags: facebook, koobface, security, twitter, virus
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