As many know I have a dislike for Facebook. Just one of the newest reasons can be found HERE. (http://security.legitnet.com/2011/01/30/facebook-worm-on-the-loose/)

Yeah, I never understood the facebook thing... and I really don't understand hackers. WTF is the sense in ruining someone's hard work? :noidea:

That sort of ploy is not unique to Facebook. Just the latest variation of old email phishing attacks. Given the trusting nature of the typical Facebook user, this could be a bad one indeed. :noidea:

At any rate, it's probably not a good idea to use the same password for your Facebook account and your email account.

Hopefully Facebook will investigate and put a stop to this quickly. :whistle:

Dave

People just need to pay attention to what the hell they are clicking on anywhere on the web, not just Facebook.

WTF is the sense in ruining someone's hard work?

money.
In the last 5-6 years the virus industry has changed from kids in colleges buggering about to see who could be top of the virus spread league table to full on commercial entities employing professional programmers.

Numerous ways they can make money. one of the simplest is to sell blocks of computers infected with your malware (malacious software) to other malware producers so they can infect the computers with their software.
These 'botnets' can also be used to blackmail large commercial websites into paying protection money. If enough computers try and access a website at the same time the servers overload and the site goes down. And anyone who thinks amazon or ebay haven't paid up ransoms to stop botnet attacks is just being foolishly naive.

This has a tendency to snowball, so that just by picking up one piece of malware can quickly become a machine infected with dozens or even hundreds.

Another way is information harvesting, advert targeting (what most toolbars - even the 'legitl ones do - the google toolbar being the worst offender in my book).

Then theres the fake antivirus programs that try and scare you into giving up your credit card information.
The ones that harvest your email address book and of course the ones that exploit your social networking accounts.

The best defence against all of these is sensible surfing habits and a decent antivirus. I like avg 2011 & malwarebytes.
I like them because they work and are free and don't slow your computer down.

But 99% of malware can be avoided simply be being careful what you click on.

Facebook is the same - yep there are an awful lot of ways to pick up malware by using facebook, but they can all be avoided with common sense and making sure you've closed the loopholes in your user account.

The best way to get a computer infected is to let a teenager use it. They don't care what pops up on the screen they just want it to go away so they'll click on just about anything without thinking about it.
But you can't do that 'cos they need computers for school.

Best solution is to get them a netbook and tell them that if it gets infected they have to pay to get it cleaned up with their OWN money. And don't crack ! lol

Very well summarized, Alex. :thumb:

poi-nts

The best way to get a computer infected is to let a teenager use it. They don't care what pops up on the screen they just want it to go away so they'll click on just about anything without thinking about it.

And because they are more likely to go looking for free stuff -- music downloads, game cheats, ring tones, etc. Using programs like Limewire and Kazaa are a GREAT way to get infected as well.

Dave

money.
In the last 5-6 years the virus industry has changed from kids in colleges buggering about to see who could be top of the virus spread league table to full on commercial entities employing professional programmers.

Numerous ways they can make money. one of the simplest is to sell blocks of computers infected with your malware (malacious software) to other malware producers so they can infect the computers with their software.
These 'botnets' can also be used to blackmail large commercial websites into paying protection money. If enough computers try and access a website at the same time the servers overload and the site goes down. And anyone who thinks amazon or ebay haven't paid up ransoms to stop botnet attacks is just being foolishly naive.

This has a tendency to snowball, so that just by picking up one piece of malware can quickly become a machine infected with dozens or even hundreds.

Another way is information harvesting, advert targeting (what most toolbars - even the 'legitl ones do - the google toolbar being the worst offender in my book).

Then theres the fake antivirus programs that try and scare you into giving up your credit card information.
The ones that harvest your email address book and of course the ones that exploit your social networking accounts.

The best defence against all of these is sensible surfing habits and a decent antivirus. I like avg 2011 & malwarebytes.
I like them because they work and are free and don't slow your computer down.

But 99% of malware can be avoided simply be being careful what you click on.

Facebook is the same - yep there are an awful lot of ways to pick up malware by using facebook, but they can all be avoided with common sense and making sure you've closed the loopholes in your user account.

The best way to get a computer infected is to let a teenager use it. They don't care what pops up on the screen they just want it to go away so they'll click on just about anything without thinking about it.
But you can't do that 'cos they need computers for school.

Best solution is to get them a netbook and tell them that if it gets infected they have to pay to get it cleaned up with their OWN money. And don't crack ! lol

Excellent post Alex... you've made some good points. I too, am on board with AVG 2011... great piece of protection there.

I also use Spybot Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html)... here's a bit on them, right from their website:

Spybot - Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven't intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been "hijacked" (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware. Even if you don't see the symptoms, your computer may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm giving it a try to see if something has invaded your computer.

Spybot-S&D can also clean usage tracks, an interesting function if you share your computer with other users and don't want them to see what you have been working on. And for professional users, Spybot-S&D allows you to fix some registry inconsistencies and extended reports. A list of all the application's features is also available.

yep spybot is a great piece of kit.

I've pretty much replaced it with malwarebytes for cleaning up client pcs.

spybot will pick up slightly more stuff, but with a malwarebytes scan averaging 10 minutes and a spybot scan averaging an hour and a half.
I ten to only use spybot if the machines in my workshop and severely infected.

money.
In the last 5-6 years the virus industry has changed from kids in colleges buggering about to see who could be top of the virus spread league table to full on commercial entities employing professional programmers.

Numerous ways they can make money. one of the simplest is to sell blocks of computers infected with your malware (malacious software) to other malware producers so they can infect the computers with their software.
These 'botnets' can also be used to blackmail large commercial websites into paying protection money. If enough computers try and access a website at the same time the servers overload and the site goes down. And anyone who thinks amazon or ebay haven't paid up ransoms to stop botnet attacks is just being foolishly naive. Wikileaks used this denial of service attacks recently

This has a tendency to snowball, so that just by picking up one piece of malware can quickly become a machine infected with dozens or even hundreds.

Another way is information harvesting, advert targeting (what most toolbars - even the 'legitl ones do - the google toolbar being the worst offender in my book).

Then theres the fake antivirus programs that try and scare you into giving up your credit card information.
The ones that harvest your email address book and of course the ones that exploit your social networking accounts.

The best defence against all of these is sensible surfing habits and a decent antivirus. I like avg 2011 & malwarebytes.
I like them because they work and are free and don't slow your computer down.

But 99% of malware can be avoided simply be being careful what you click on.

Facebook is the same - yep there are an awful lot of ways to pick up malware by using facebook, but they can all be avoided with common sense and making sure you've closed the loopholes in your user account.

The best way to get a computer infected is to let a teenager use it. They don't care what pops up on the screen they just want it to go away so they'll click on just about anything without thinking about it.
But you can't do that 'cos they need computers for school.

Best solution is to get them a netbook and tell them that if it gets infected they have to pay to get it cleaned up with their OWN money. And don't crack ! lol

Bravo Sir! I completely agree with every point made and Dave's input as well.

I'm still not getting on facebook though.

Wikileaks used this denial of service attacks recently

well that's not strictly true. A group of hackers used dos attacks and claimed it was because of the hassle wikileaks had got.
Legally that's very different than saying wikileaks used dos attacks :-)
And there is no evidence that the wikileaks personnel had any knowlege of the attacks.

I don't give a fig one way or the other - just clarifying matters :whistle:

yep spybot is a great piece of kit.

I've pretty much replaced it with malwarebytes for cleaning up client pcs.

spybot will pick up slightly more stuff, but with a malwarebytes scan averaging 10 minutes and a spybot scan averaging an hour and a half.
I ten to only use spybot if the machines in my workshop and severely infected.

Yeah, spybot does take awhile to complete it's scan... never tried malwarebytes. Is this a freeware version?

Yeah, spybot does take awhile to complete it's scan... never tried malwarebytes. Is this a freeware version?

Oops... sorry, I reread your post and found the answer... DUH! :eek:

I run both spybot and malwarebytes once a week at least...Cookie cleaner after every computer use...Never done the facebook or really care to..