The battle between web sites and hackers continues on. Facebook is often a great place for hackers to take advantage of, mostly because there’s Millions of users and also because it’s rather easy to trick people to click certain things or download certain things.

A couple weeks ago, we talked about the Ramnit worm which captured upwards of 45,000 login details. While that seems to be under control now, there was another worm making it’s way around the site.

This worm, with a strange title “Koobface”, took advantage of social networks, mostly Facebook, to compromise computers in order to gain full control of them. The gang behind it seems to have been found.

Via BBC:

“The suspected gang were tracked down to St Petersburg after an investigation by Facebook and cybersecurity researchers. The worm gave the gang control of hundreds of thousands of computers (nearly 800,000). While not the largest such network of hijacked machines or “botnet”, the so-called Koobface worm is notable for its targeting of social networks.”

This kind of hacking is a serious crime with a prison sentence so they’re likely in a lot of trouble if they’re found to be guilty.

“The company estimates the gang was making in the region of $2m every year. But Mr Cluley says that the cybercriminals’ desire to keep an eye on their earnings assisted the researchers.”

“They were receiving daily SMS updates on how much money they were making, because we saw that – we could also see their phone numbers.” He says there is some frustration at the slow response of the authorities: “It’s pretty well known who they are now, we just need the Russian police to go and investigate this and stop them.”

How long of a prison sentence do you think they should serve?

Hacker Group Tracked Down, Compromised Nearly 1 Million Machines Through Facebook is a post from: The Inquisitr

Facebook has been quite the subject lately for all sorts of attacks. The latest attack on users, a worm dubbed “Ramnit”, appears to have captured 45,000 login credentials. While that number out of nearly a Billion users doesn’t sound too bad, factor in hundreds, even thousands of friends for each person, and you’ve got a problem on your hands.

Seculert, a security vendor, was alerted of the problem which found a server holding all of the login credentials. That doesn’t mean that that’s all there were as there could be far more login credentials compromised and hidden elsewhere.

How does the worm work exactly? Computerworld has the scoop:

“The worm, called Ramnit, infects Windows executables, Microsoft Office and HTML files, according to a profile published by Microsoft. It steals user names, passwords, browser cookies and can also function as a backdoor, allowing a hacker to do other malicious actions on an infected computer.”

Insert sarcastic Mac user comment here. All joking aside, the worm didn’t just compromise login credentials, but also affected hundreds of thousands of computers.

“Seculert estimates that some 800,000 computers were infected with Ramnit between September through the end of December. A Symantec report from July 2011 put Ramnit as the most common piece of malware it blocked in June and July 2011.”

As Facebook continues to grow, there will be more and more attacks to get user information and/or distribute unauthorized content via the social network. Users need to be more careful with what they click and with the security of their own computers to help prevent things like this from happening.

Worm Hits Facebook, Steals Nearly 50,000 Login Credentials is a post from: The Inquisitr

Facebook Worm 2.0

Koobface tricks you into following a link that looks like it’s from a friend. It’ll usually look like a link to a video of someone you know. Once you open the link, though, you’ll be told you need to download an update to your video player. That update is actually the Facebook worm threat in disguise.

The new variant, discovered by researchers at Trend Micro, poses as a YouTube page. It’ll even display your name and photo from Facebook to give a nonthreatening appearance to unsuspecting users.

(Image courtesy Trend Micro)

Facebook-Aided Virus Spread

Once you agree to install the software it offers, the Koobface worm will take over your computer and hijack your Facebook account. It’ll then live up to its Facebook virus reputation by sending messages to your friends and attempting to infect them.

“It also sends and receives information from an infected machine by connecting to several servers,” says Trend Micro’s Rik Ferguson. “This allows hackers to execute commands on the affected machine.”

The new Koobface virus has also been detected on several other social networks, including MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Hi5, and Live Journal.

Koobface Protection

Keeping yourself safe from Koobface is simple: Be very cautious of what you click. Even if something appears to have come from a friend, remember that their account could be infected and the message may not actually be from them. Make sure you know where you’re going before you click.

Once you do follow a link, never install software updates directly from that page. If you receive a notice that you need an update for your Adobe Flash player, navigate directly to adobe.com and look for the update at the original source. That’s the safest way to know you’re getting the real deal, and not a Facebook worm in disguise.

Facebook Worm “Koobface” Morphs Into New Form is a post from: The Inquisitr