20% of Facebook Surfers Target of Malware: Bitdefender

According to security company BitDefender, which recently published some statistics, even after improving its security systems, Facebook continues to be a target of PC Trojans, keyloggers and other types of malicious programs concealed within malevolent web-links alternatively within its intermediary applications. Indeed, a huge 20% of the total Facebook users continue to be attacked with malware via harmful posts, the company discloses.

Moreover, BitDefender's research further discovered that cyber-criminals delivered 60% of all malicious assaults on Facebook through harmless-appearing applications.

Of those applications, the "attack apps" subset, which was most popular and comprised 21.5% of all malware, represented software that apparently carried out Facebook-prohibited functions such as identifying the person who saw the user's personal page as well as who became unfriendly with the user.

Besides "app attacks," the study discovered that 16% more of malicious programs observed on Facebook lured visitors to see a shocking video wherein an anaconda apparently threw out a hippopotamus out of its mouth, while 5% more of attacks associated with the Koobface virus.

A good 15.4% of the total junk e-mails enticed users with promises of extra items to play Facebook games such as non-chargeable items within FarmVille, whilst 11.2% promised extra Facebook availabilities such as dislike buttons and free backgrounds.

The research also discovered that 7.1% of the e-mail junk lured with fresh editions of popular online games such as World of Warcraft; 5.4% offered free mobile phones; and 1.3% enticed with a method for seeing free films online.

Notably, BitDefender's data received the support of Websense another security company. Figures gathered using Facebook's "Defensio" a security application revealed that during June 22-July 12, 2010, 40% of the entire number of status updates on Facebook had web-links, with 10% of those web-links actually delivering spam/malware.

Eventually, even the IT unit of Facebook perceives that malware attacks are consistently striking the website even with their maximum endeavor towards securing it. Only during the 3rd week of November 2010, a fresh e-mail assault struck Facebook wherein users were told of new passwords issued for their accounts, while prompting them for downloading attached software that actually installed a Trojan.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 12/2/2010