Facebook Malisouse Code

First appeared back in 2008, “koobface” (which is anagram for Facebook) was recognized as a computer worm targeting popular social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Within the past weeks, the worm has also widely spread among the file-sharing community through infiltrating and infecting torrent files uploaded on different famous BitTorrent trackers.

The worm works the following way: by using an already infected machine, it sends messages with malicious links to other Facebook users. When clicking on the video link, the recipients would be redirected to a fake link offering to update their Adobe Flash Player. Then, if a user is unwise enough to fall for the hoax, the malware infects the targeted computer. The malware in question will then block its access to a number of sites, including anti-virus vendors, and may even steal its license keys.

Security experts recently published some new information on how the malware is spreading on the file-sharing community. According to them, KOOBFACE appears as a “loader” by using fake torrents. As soon as the “loader”, named worm_koobface.av, targets and infects a particular computer, it would then simply run in the background as fake uTorrent software. This fake application will then download a number of dangerous files onto the affected PC.

Meanwhile, the researchers suggested that the worm had shifted from concentrating on propagating in different social networks to BitTorrent networks because of the attempts made by the Facebook, Twitter and other affected services to prevent the koobface botnet from abusing their framework. Unlike social networks, P2P community would find it more difficult to protect themselves from the worm.

Nevertheless, even considering this news over the change, Internet users that do not use P2P networks should understand that koobface hasn’t stopped in coming up with schemes to infect their computers. Instead, the developers are just currently looking for other ways to do so. Those who are a regular user of uTorrent and other P2P software are recommended to pay attention to their computer protection. The list of fake torrent files includes software like Lightroom and WinRAR and entertainment movies and music, for example Silent Scream The Dancer and Voodoo Whisperer.