Zeus is Back - Beware Facebook Users!!!

A six-year-old virus that drains bank accounts is thriving on Facebook, reports Nicole Perlroth of The New York Times.

The virus is spread through phishing messages.

When someone has been phished, their account will automatically send messages or links to a large number of their friends.

These messages or links are usually ads telling friends to check out videos or products. Don't click them.

Facebook is aware of the problem but it isn't taking the matter nearly as seriously as it should be, says Eric Feinberg, founder of the advocacy group Fans Against Kounterfeit Enterprise (FAKE).

Feinberg told The NYTimes, “[Facebook isn't] listening ... we need oversight on this.”

The virus is called Zeus. It's a special type of Trojan horse that has already infected millions of computers. Zeus works by remaining dormant on your computer until you log into your bank account. Once you're in it steals your password and drains your account.

Zeus targets Windows machines. It does not work on Mac OS X or Linux. The only real way to protect yourself from it is to make sure you only click links that come from trusted sources.

The virus is sophisticated too. Sometimes it can even replace your bank's website with its own page in order to get even more information like your social security number so that it can be sold on the black market.

Zeus has been around since 2007 and evidence shows that it is only getting more active. The virus is being hosted from computers controlled by a Russian criminal gang that has been linked to online crimes ranging from malware and identity theft all the way to child pornography.

Think Before You Click : How To Protect Yourself On FACEBOOK ?

I know most of you don't like reading, but i believe that when it comes to privacy and securing your Facebook or Twitter account and preventing your information like passwords and pictures to be stolen and known you will read. I suggest you to read the following to protect your Facebook and other Social Networking Profiles.

What is clickjacking on Facebook?

Clickjacking is a security threat similar to cross-site scripting. It happens when cybercriminals use several transparent layers to trick users into clicking a button or a link. Clickjacking may use different types of links, ranging from image links to text links.
The term “clickjacking” was coined because the attack aims to "hijack" the number of clicks meant for a particular page. It then routes to the clicks to another page. Cybercriminals hide malicious content under the veil of legitimate pages and may use iframes and malicious JavaScript to load this content from a third-party site.

BEWARE OF FAKE FACEBOOK SECURITY PAGE PHISHING SCAM

Trend Micro has spotted a malware sample, TSPY_MINOCDO.A, which targets Facebook users. The malware redirects users to a spoofed page of the social network and claims to be part of the site's security check feature, even showing the tagline “Security checks help keep Facebook trustworthy and free of spam”. Users eager to log into Facebook may fall victim to this ruse, taking the 'security check' for face value. This may result in them entering their details and thus exposing their credit card accounts to cyber criminal infiltration. The report has also highlighted the three-fold increase in attacks on small businesses from 2011. Trend Micro said the survey scam had also promised other tech goodies such as Google Glass, Instagram, and Tumblr.

Malware That Turns Your PC into Bitcoin Miners

Researchers from Kaspersky Lab have discovered a new spam message campaign being transmitted via Skype contains malware capable of using an infected computer to mine for Bitcoins. The malware, identified as Trojan.Win32.Jorik.IRCbot.xkt.

Bitcoin is a non-governmental, fully-digital currency based on an open-source and peer-to-peer internet protocol. Cybercriminals have figured out that distributed Bitcoin mining is a perfect task for botnets and have started developing malware that can abuse the CPUs and GPUs of infected computers to generate Bitcoins.

"Bitcoin mining is the process of making computer hardware do mathematical calculations for the Bitcoin network to confirm transactions and increase security,"