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Attacks targeting social networking sites

Any message that appears to have come from a friend in the network is trusted by default. By this nature, social networking sites are the easy targets for worm writers to spread the attack. Also, behavioral analysis is possible by looking at enormous amount of content available. An attack that is ta...

Aug 19, 2008By Chandra1 min read

Any message that appears to have come from a friend in the network is trusted by default. By this nature, social networking sites are the easy targets for worm writers to spread the attack. Also, behavioral analysis is possible by looking at enormous amount of content available. An attack that is targeted is thus possible, based on individual’s interest.

The recently identified MySpace, FaceBook worm is one example of such an attack, which transforms victim’s machine into a zombie computer that can be used in the botnet. This worm creates spam messages and sends them to users in the friends network through infected user’s account. The messages include Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street; Examiners Caught Downloading Grades From The Internet; Hello; You must see it!!! LOL. My friend catched you on hidden cam; Is it really celebrity? Funny Moments.

Upon clicking these links, a message appears saying latest Flash player is required and it downloads codecsetup.exe which is a worm.

KasperSky coverage is here

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