Cyber Criminals Attacked Facebook Users with Malicious Spam Messages

Cyber criminals, who targeted the Facebook users with malicious attacks in the first week of May 2009, have now started using the hacked accounts to send spam messages to other accounts, as reported by IDG.NO on May 7, 2009.

Some Facebook users complained of flooding their inboxes with "run-of-the mill" Viagra spam messages, while other said that they had received messages with text "look at mygener.im." All these e-mails contained a link that took the users to a malicious code hosting website.

Barry Schnitt, Spokesman, Facebook, has confirmed the latest spam attacks and said that it could be an adware, as reported by CNET.NEWS on May 7, 2009.

Security experts at Facebook have advised users that if they have received the abovementioned e-mail and opened the link, then they should scan their systems with an antivirus to remove any malware.

Security experts have also suggested to people, who opened the link in the first week of May 2009, to change their passwords in case they haven't changed them as yet.

According to the reports, Facebook has initiated the process of disabling the accounts linked to the recent spam attack. However, the social networking company has denied furnishing the details of the number of users affected as this would enable the criminals to know the effectiveness of its security measures.

In addition, Facebook is conducting the investigating at its own end. Security experts at the social networking site stated that the recent attack had seemed to be the second stage of the two related phishing attacks launched in the first week of May 2009.

Besides, a number of security experts has expressed their opinion on the recent phishing attack against Facebook. Paul Ferguson, Researcher at Trend Micro, states that after thoroughly analyzing the attacks, he came to the conclusion that the attack had been the handiwork of cyber criminals who were associated with the Russian Business Network, as reported by IDG.NO on May 7, 2009.

Expressing his opinion on the issue, Michael Argast, Analyst at Sophos, said that there had been a tremendous increase in the attacks against Facebook for the last few months, as reported by The New York Times on May 14, 2009. As the number of online users rises, the opportunities to make illegal gains for cyber criminals also increase.

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» SPAMfighter News - 5/20/2009