Davey Winder
Wednesday, 29 October 2008 17:42
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Facebook worms are, sadly, not that uncommon. However, they do all tend to share a common tactic of using a non-existent video requiring a Trojan disguised as a new codec download to work. Now one enterprising scumbag is using Google to leverage trust amongst Facebook victims.
This year we have seen
worms in space and worms promising
Paris
Hilton will toss a dwarf on the street. We have seen worms
targeting specific routers
and worms
aimed at mobile phone operating systems.
We have also seen a fair number of
Facebook
specific worms
which is hardly surprising given the incredible popularity of the
social networking phenomenon and the incredible willingness of Facebook
users to morph into
link clicking idiots.
What we have not seen is any real ingenuity on behalf of the
cybercriminals behind these worms, beyond that of coming up with clever
and often
amusing hook-lines together with appealing
sounding non-videos to entrap the unwary.
Until now. Fortinet’s FortiGuard Center tells me it has uncovered a new
malicious Facebook worm that uses Google Reader to gain the trust of
victims. Sure, a malicious video is still involved and is distributed
through the Facebook worm, but this then attempts to socially engineer
trust by redirecting out of Facebook and straight onto a Google Reader
share site.
It all starts with the Facebook user getting a message on their wall
telling them that someone has uploaded a video of them on YouTube that
they should see. Actually, why anyone would fall for this from the get
go is beyond me if the Fortinet example message is anything to go by.
It says: "Sommebody uupload a viideo wiith you on utubee, you shuold ese."
If you are mug enough to bother clicking on the link that follows you
end up at a Google Reader share. Google Reader lets users share news
and online content that they have found interesting, both with their
circle of friends and the wider general public.
Find out what happens next, and how you can avoid being just another victim of this illiterate malware crook on page 2...
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