New worm targets Facebook, MySpace
Just because a "friend" sends you something on Facebook or MySpace doesn't mean you should trust it.
A new worm is spreading via Facebook and MySpace, turning victims' computers into zombies on a botnet, Kaspersky Lab said on Friday.
Basically, infected machines are propagating the worm by sending messages via the social networks to friends in the network.
The messages look like they contain links to video clips. When clicked on they prompt the recipient to download an executable file that purports to be the latest version of Flash Player. Instead, it is the worm itself, infecting yet another victim.
When infected machines log onto the social networks the next time their computers automatically send the malicious messages out to new victims grabbed from the friend list, said Ryan Naraine, security evangelist at Kaspersky.
"We've seen these types of worms before, typically around MySpace," he said. "People are more trusting of things they receive from a friend," and many people don't recognize that what they are downloading isn't a legitimate Flash Player file, but a malicious program.
Naraine repeated the refrain that security professionals have been spreading for years: be careful about downloading anything to your computer, even if it appears to come from a friend; and be diligent about applying security patches to your computer.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
THis is trojan, it requires human assistance to install. OS X is as much vulnerable to those as Windows. As long as anybody cares to write a trojan for it.
Being an executable file, this will affect Windows users...It's always advisable to be safe no matter what platform you use.
And I dispute your implied assertion that the only reason OS X has a better track record is because nobody targets it. However, I don't intend to discuss it here, it's been done to death elsewhere (http://www.silvermac.com/2008/why-there-are-no-viruses-for-osx/ for example). (And actually I will agree that it's part of the reason.)
But I've got a great idea. Right now your assertion is just smoke; you can't prove it until Mac has as large a market share as Windows. But there's one easy way to prove you're right. All we need is enough people to switch to Apple! All you MS fanbois, go out and buy a Mac -- and use it -- and use it with OS X. Enough of you do that and pretty soon you'll be able to prove your case.
Meantime, I'll sit here and feel all smug and superior because I know you won't put your money where your mouth is. :)
P.S. My Windows machines aren't infected either. Maybe some of use don't need that wake-up call?
The real reason I believe Macs are not targeted is because quite simply they are more secure. OS X is built on Unix code, specifically FreeBSD (with the Mach kernel). FreeBSD has thirty plus years of security built-in. OS X has proven itself to be extremely secure as well; Apple patches quickly and unlike Microsoft most of the things that affect them are from third-party software and unlike Microsoft there is almost no exploited code. Whereas Microsoft routinely has exploited code. I'll grant them that Vista is a big step forward for security, but if we look at XP and Vista together, they still pale in comparison to OS X from a security standpoint. Your misguided obfuscations of the truth cannot dispute that.
I will agree, however, that Mac users need to start being a little more "paranoid". Mac users should, at minimum, use a virus software of some sort (if for no other reason than they don't propagate viruses to their Windows friends by accidently forwarding emails to them). OS X's permission system (again: Unix) is pretty secure as long as the user isn't logged in as root/admin or using SUDO commands or whatever.
The safety and security of my personal computer is something I covet since it's the most important tool for my business.
Thanks in advance!
- by sandyviv July 15, 2009 10:30 AM PDT
- now most of the popular networking sites are preyed on by hackers. no one is safe in the internet. everyone should be careful while opening any suspicious files. myspace and facebook are here for the long run so they should do something to stop this if they dont they will lose users. after reading this i am really thinking twice to visit these sites. not only this is the only problem, i read somewhere that our informations are leaked to third parties or its too easy to get our personal info from these sites. i have now stopped using these sites.
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