According to the Panda Labs, the 56th variant of the Koobface worm has been found. Since May 2008, the worm has been spreading across Facebook, MySpace, Tagged, Friendster, MyYearBook, Fubar.com, Hi5 and Bebo.
The Growth of Koobface infections:
Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center reports that
- The growth of such infections is as high as 1,200% since last year
- 40 % of the infections are based in the US
My Space, however has declared their victory in the war on spam and phishing. Apparently they believe to have put in a lot of features on the site that would cleanse infections like Koobface. MySpace claims that their users are experiencing an overall 73% reduction in spam compared to a year ago.
In spite of what is being said and done, Koobface continues to spread quite persistently. The users of Facebook, MySpace and other social networking communities should be on guard against the Koobface worm, which spreads by tricking users into responding to a message apparently sent from one of their friends.
As always, be very careful about clicking on links in unsolicited messages, even if they appear to have been sent by a friend.
(Source: zdnet)