Watch out for a nasty virus affecting Facebook, Youtube and other popular sites.

[CptnSkippy]

Never gotten a virus once in all my years of computing. And I run without protection. Just always run as a limited user.

Just a heads up - one of my employees infected himself with a variant of this extortionware. It was solely to his login (they're all limited to user only), and after reviewing the sites - I believe it was one of the third party ad servers. All of the sites seemed legit.

[delsdad]

There were a couple of drive by virusses that surfaced in the last few days, and one of them was indeed infecting people via facebook. Simply loading the page was enough to cause the infection, which exploited a hole in java. There is a patch out now to close the hole, but it did not come out till wednesday or thursday. Its scary that you could get infected by just viewing the page, you did not need to download anything.
Heres an article about it http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=6161 ... ntent;col2

[Lasolimu]

There were a couple of drive by virusses that surfaced in the last few days, and one of them was indeed infecting people via facebook. Simply loading the page was enough to cause the infection, which exploited a hole in java. There is a patch out now to close the hole, but it did not come out till wednesday or thursday. Its scary that you could get infected by just viewing the page, you did not need to download anything.
Heres an article about it http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=6161 ... ntent;col2

Well, by viewing the page you are downloading something, the page itself. So, you didn't need to download anything extra. It was most likely in one of the ads because they could do that. This means that I would be protected from it though because I never download ads.

[kurtisnelson]

Just a heads up - one of my employees infected himself with a variant of this extortionware. It was solely to his login (they're all limited to user only), and after reviewing the sites - I believe it was one of the third party ad servers. All of the sites seemed legit.

Also don't use IE. Ever. Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, anything not integrated into the operating system. Also, don't be stupid. Or just use OpenBSD and you won't ever have to worry about anything breaking.

[felinefan]

A little while ago, I was on another thread, and accidentally clicked to close the page. Next thing I know, the dang SGT and MSN IE are multiplying rapidly in the top of the page, and I can't stop them. Control+ Alt+ Delete didn't help. I finally had to just turn the computer off, then turn it back on. Of course it had to scan the C drive to make sure the illegal shutdown didn't cause damage, but it seems to be okay now. Keep in mind this is not my computer, it's an oldie running Win 98, and there's no manuals lying around for it. My hostess got it when her work upgraded their computers. I mean, the thing's so old it doesn't have USB ports on it anywhere. Yes, I looked at the back. What happened? I have no info on what's on this thing.

[Cranbiz]

I have used Linux some. I have a private webserver that runs Ubuntu. Some of what I do requires Windows so switching over to Linux fully is not possible at this time. This is the first time I have ever gotten such a bad virus.

Virtual box on Ubuntu and a Win XP install, take a snapshot of the completed install (or export the VD) and you are good to go, when the windows install gets infected, restore the snapshot.

That's what I'm running in my shop only because there is not a Quickbooks equivalent for Linux.

[Rex]

I am an I.T. professional, and this is something that has come up in discussions many times. Sadly, there are groups, both government sponsored, and organization sponsored, not to mention the many mafias and other crime syndicates that are involved that are quite literally obsessed with viruses, trojans, spyware, malware, and any other number of undesirable software to harm you and your computer.

MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and many other similar sites are categorized as "social networking" websites. This group of websites has been targeted as an avenue to commit computer crimes. Malicious users can gain control of your computer, even use it to attack other computers and systems, steal private data, such as e-mail, photos, financial records, user habits, such as what you search for, what websites you visit, usernames and passwords - basically anything that has the potential to be used for monetary or other gain.

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the dangers surrounding social networking sites. There is an extreme risk of infection, simply by visiting the website, and not clicking anything, or even logging in. Simply by connecting to the website, you are inadvertently putting your computer at risk.

As mentioned earlier, malicious advertisers have the ability to place code inside of images, profiles, even blank pages with nothing on them, that is capable of gaining unauthorized access to your computer, or even network.

Another scary situation that has been becoming more common, although, is not a significant risk, at least not yet, is that your photos can become stolen, and used in advertisements and identity theft. With this, malicious persons have then also “mined” the information on your profile, your friends, and then gather enough information to open bank accounts in your name, purchasing vehicles, even real estate.

I personally do have an account with Facebook – however, I am not at all active on Facebook. I would delete my account, and remove it completely, however, once on the internet, I no longer have any way to permanently remove all records. Services such as the Wayback Machine http://www.waybackmachine.org/web/ create permanent records that can not be altered, deleted, or removed. Sites such as Facebook also keep permanent backups of data on their servers, which also potentially can retrieved by anyone, anywhere, in the world.

Another issue is future employers. Frequently, employers will search online new employees, and even current ones. Things you say, post, do, or display can be used against you when trying to obtain a job, or, lead to your termination.

My opinion of social networking sites really comes down to this – they were a great idea, however they just weren’t designed for today’s security needs in mind – you really have to be conscious of everything online – the internet is a very, very, very dangerous place.

A tip from the F.B.I. is to maintain a computer for any and all financial software, transactions, and online banking completely separate from any actives that are not financially related. This means that you have a computer for checking email, browsing the internet, watching videos, listening to music, quite literally anything other than financial activities.


For those who have been infected with a virus, I would be happy to provide assistance if requested.

[felinefan]

About photos--I saw this one story of a Norwegian, I think, store owner who got a picture of a happy family off the internet, blew it up to fit his store window, and it just so happened a friend of the family in the picture saw it and notified the family. They contacted the store owner, who said he thought it was a made-up picture, didn't know the family was real, etc.. He was informed that the family did indeed exist, it was one of their Christmas pictures that they had stored online, and how it got into other hands was a mystery. But the store owner offered to give them some of his finest wines as a payment--if they were locals. Uh, can we say this guy wasn't aware that these were Americans? He seemed to be a little out of it. He used the picture because it showed what he wanted his customers to feel--this was a store for families that had a happy ambience. I will probably never understand the ins and outs of European advertising, but then again I am sure there are Europeans who will never completely understand American style advertising.

[delsdad]

Thanks for summing these risks up all in one place. Too many people are oblivious to these things. I worry about no technical people like my parents who innocently look at things like you tube on the same computer they use for everything else.
This is why I use an old laptop for this type of surfing, and I re-image it every 10 days or so, depending on my beta schedule.

I am an I.T. professional, and this is something that has come up in discussions many times. Sadly, there are groups, both government sponsored, and organization sponsored, not to mention the many mafias and other crime syndicates that are involved that are quite literally obsessed with viruses, trojans, spyware, malware, and any other number of undesirable software to harm you and your computer.

MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and many other similar sites are categorized as "social networking" websites. This group of websites has been targeted as an avenue to commit computer crimes. Malicious users can gain control of your computer, even use it to attack other computers and systems, steal private data, such as e-mail, photos, financial records, user habits, such as what you search for, what websites you visit, usernames and passwords - basically anything that has the potential to be used for monetary or other gain.

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the dangers surrounding social networking sites. There is an extreme risk of infection, simply by visiting the website, and not clicking anything, or even logging in. Simply by connecting to the website, you are inadvertently putting your computer at risk.

As mentioned earlier, malicious advertisers have the ability to place code inside of images, profiles, even blank pages with nothing on them, that is capable of gaining unauthorized access to your computer, or even network.

Another scary situation that has been becoming more common, although, is not a significant risk, at least not yet, is that your photos can become stolen, and used in advertisements and identity theft. With this, malicious persons have then also “mined” the information on your profile, your friends, and then gather enough information to open bank accounts in your name, purchasing vehicles, even real estate.

I personally do have an account with Facebook – however, I am not at all active on Facebook. I would delete my account, and remove it completely, however, once on the internet, I no longer have any way to permanently remove all records. Services such as the Wayback Machine http://www.waybackmachine.org/web/ create permanent records that can not be altered, deleted, or removed. Sites such as Facebook also keep permanent backups of data on their servers, which also potentially can retrieved by anyone, anywhere, in the world.

Another issue is future employers. Frequently, employers will search online new employees, and even current ones. Things you say, post, do, or display can be used against you when trying to obtain a job, or, lead to your termination.

My opinion of social networking sites really comes down to this – they were a great idea, however they just weren’t designed for today’s security needs in mind – you really have to be conscious of everything online – the internet is a very, very, very dangerous place.

A tip from the F.B.I. is to maintain a computer for any and all financial software, transactions, and online banking completely separate from any actives that are not financially related. This means that you have a computer for checking email, browsing the internet, watching videos, listening to music, quite literally anything other than financial activities.


For those who have been infected with a virus, I would be happy to provide assistance if requested.

[ktulu]

My best advice, don't use the internet. Yes, I do work for a provider, and chances are really good your packets have crossed our network.