Man Withdraws Law Suit Over Virus Attack Against Facebook

Theodore Karantsalis, a librarian from Florida (USA), has withdrawn his legal charges against the social-networking website Facebook he had filed in a civil suit claiming that it could not safeguard him sufficiently against a virus attack.

In the 2nd week of May 2009, Karantsalis demanded $70.50 after finding that his account with Facebook was hacked and it began directing spam mails connected to a fake website to his friends.

When Karantsalis filed the suit, he had complained that Facebook's security lapse made it unable to adequately block a virus that proliferated to all the users of the site.

Facebook, on its part, had detected the hack into Karantsalis' account; so it changed his password as well as informed him about the security infringement.

Security specialists said that Facebook was apparently amused as it had dismissed the librarian's lawsuit telling journalists over an e-mail that it was eager to know on what basis Karantsalis had computed the amount of $70.50. Facebook added that it would certainly not pay the stated amount but would definitely return Karantsalis the deposit he had made for using Facebook, as reported by ComputerWorldUK on May 27, 2009.

Responding to Facebook's query, Karantsalis said that he computed the amount on the basis of the damages caused for re-adding approximately 250 friends on his address book, with each costing 30 Cents, as reported by CNET on May 26, 2009.

Fortunately, it seems everything is now sorted out. Karantsalis has the habit of suing organizations of high profile and in Facebook's case he admitted that he sued it only to attract the site's attention towards him.

Commenting on the point, security specialists stated that as hackers increasingly send malware, spam and phishing through sites for social networking, there are possibilities that the sites would be under pressure to take more steps for the safeguard of their users.

According to Sophos latest research, 33% of people reported that they had been spammed through sites for social networking, while one in 5 had been victimized in malware and phishing attacks.

Related article: Man Sues and Wins against ISP for Spamming Mail

» SPAMfighter News - 6/1/2009