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Hackers Use Facebook Access as Bait

With an essentially limitless supply of technologically naive users, Facebook is too tempting for hackers to resist. Larry Barrett reports. Facebook once again finds itself under attack from hackers looking to spread spam and snare personal information by trying to convince users that their accounts have either been commandeered by spammers or suspended. With more […]

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Larry Barrett

Feb 4, 2011

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With an essentially limitless supply of technologically naive users, Facebook is too tempting for hackers to resist. Larry Barrett reports.

Facebook once again finds itself under attack from hackers looking to spread spam and snare personal information by trying to convince users that their accounts have either been commandeered by spammers or suspended.

With more than 550 million registered users, Facebook provides a fertile – and occasionally embarrassingly insecure – platform for malware authors and nickel-and-dime hackers to ply their trade.

Software vendor Panda Security this week unearthed a pair of new threats that use a similar tactic– the threat of users being unable to access their beloved Facebook accounts – to “wreak havoc,” according to security analysts.

The first scam, identified by PandaLabs researchers as Asprox.N, is a Trojan tucked away in an unsolicited email that advises users that their Facebook accounts are being used to send spam. The irony, of course, is that if someone follows the prescribed directions, which include clicking on a faux Word document supposedly containing a new password, the victim’s PC or mobile device is infected and becomes a vehicle for distributing spam.

Read the rest at eSecurity Planet.

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Larry Barrett

Larry Barrett is a freelance journalist and blogger who has covered the information technology and business sectors for more than 15 years. Most recently, he served as the online news editor for 1105 Media's Office Technology Group and as the online managing editor for SourceMedia's Investment Advisory Group publications Financial Planning, On Wall Street, and Bank Investment Consultant. He was also a senior writer and editor at Ziff Davis Media's Baseline Magazine, winner of the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award, and ZDNet. In addition, he's served as a senior writer and editor at prominent technology and business websites including CNET, InternetNews.com, Multichannel News, and the San Jose Business Journal.

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