Virus on Facebook

POSTED BY on 11:08 am under

Details here via BBC

Just goes to show that the spammers/scammers will use any medium – email, IM, Facebook, MySpace, Filesharing and Torrents -  to try and infect the dumb users on the net.

To get this virus you need to:

  1. Open a Facebook message (probably from someone you don’t know)
    The title is “you look funny (or ‘awesome’) in this new video” 
    I mean, wouldn’t you know if you had been videoed???
  2. Click on a link that says “secret video by Tom” 
    You know Tom your best mate who videoed you – yeah right
  3. Click on a prompt to download a ‘new version of Adobe Flash’
  4. Sit back and watch yourself get infected

My point is you need to break the sensible rules of internet usage not 1 but 3 times to get this virus. Maybe those who get it deserve it.

For those who might not know:

  1. Don’t open email or messages from people you don’t know
  2. Don’t just do it anyway cause like your antivirus software is really good and that
  3. Don’t open any attachments to emails or links in messages unless you were expecting to get an attachment for a legitimate reason. And make sure you have ‘Hide extensions for know file types’ turned off in Windows so you can really see what the attachments are
    To do this: Open windows explorer or MY computer, Click Tools menu, Go to folder options, Go to view, Uncheck the ‘Hide extensions’ option in the list
  4. Don’t click on links for program updates you didn’t ask for deliberately. If you think your Flash or other program needs an update run the ‘check for update’ function built into the program or else type/Google the programs website and download the update directly. This ensures you are getting a legitimate version. Reputable download sites like FileHippo.com or Download.com are ok too