Facebook Ads Contaminate Visitors with Malicious Software: Trend Micro

Trend Micro, lately, spotted one drive-by download assault against Facebook, which resorted to malevolent ads for contaminating visitors with malicious software.

Researchers at the company said that they discovered one sequence of infections that involved an end-user being led onto a Facebook web-page, which had a few ads and ultimately onto another web-page having exploits. As the researchers tracked down the advertisements' link with Facebook, they discovered that the ads were associated with one special Facebook application. They examined that application and discovered it as advertising, the researchers explained. PCWorld Digital published this on October 6, 2011.

Moreover, the experts discovered the assault as targeting Facebook members via one separate channel, which they named "malvertisements."

Typically, assaults of the malvertising kind occur due to negligent exercises by sales teams and advertising networks. The strikers commonly imitate legal advertisers so their ads can be endorsed thereby enabling them to inject malware into those ads.

Albeit such assaults have victimized numerous big ad-networks and websites, and Facebook too had to earlier tackle with some, yet in those instances, the ads were displayed as bogus security warnings.

Nevertheless, 'malverts,' which package drive-by attacks, intended to exploit flaws within well-known Web-browsers or browser plug-ins, represent a far greater risk as they aren't reliant on user-interaction.

Moreover, malvertising is suitable on Facebook owing to the latter's design that allows software creators to work with the help of whichever advertising they may choose.

But, normally they're other assaults that plague Facebook. The Trend Micro researchers detected the 3 highly-frequent attacks that strike Facebook. These are "likejacking" that involves defrauding visitors into indicating their latest status about certain web-page, which they in reality did not want to "like;" spam scams; and fake software programs.

Meanwhile, previously during 2011, Trend Micro further discovered malverts getting exhibited within an e-mail service based on the Web, taking end-users onto websites pushing PDF attack codes.

Thus, users are recommended that they should be careful while loading Facebook software. A security solution must be used that's highly reputed technology-wise so that malicious web-links can be distinguished from those that are safe in any social-networking ambience.

Related article: Facebook Users Should be Careful of a Computer Virus

» SPAMfighter News - 10/17/2011