Victims must pay $25 to get back into facebook

A new strain of cybercrime Trojan is targeting Facebook users by taking over their machines and shaking them down for cash.
Carberp, like its predecessors ZeuS and SpyEye, infects machines by tricking punters into opening PDFs and Excel documents loaded with malicious code, or attacks computers in drive-by downloads. The hidden ?

>From theregister.co.uk

Bank-raid malware is the latest nasty to infect Facebook users.
A bank account-raiding worm has started spreading on Facebook, stealing login credentials as it creeps across the site, security researchers have revealed.

Ramnit differs from other worms, such as Koobface, that have used Facebook to spread because it relies on multiple infection techniques and has only recently extended onto social networks. Koobface, by contrast, only uses Facebook or Twitter to spread.

We suspect that they use the Facebook logins to post on a victim's friends' wall links to malicious websites which download Ramnit

The cyber-criminals are also taking advantage of the fact that people usually use the same passwords for different web-based services (Facebook, Gmail, Corporate SSL VPN, Outlook Web Access, etc.) to gain remote access to corporate networks

Full story on TheRegister
 

EPIC Seeks Information About DHS Social Media Monitoring Program
    Under FOIA
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has filed a lawsuit
seeking information about the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS)
program to monitor social networking media. The lawsuit, filed under the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), is specifically seeking details about
DHS's "Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational
Awareness Initiatives" and also about "contracts, proposals, and
communications between the federal government and third parties"
regarding the use of the data. EPIC made the initial FOIA request in
April 2011, but did not receive any documents. The lawsuit alleges
several violations of FOIA.

And possibly yours, too

A security hole on Facebook has been exposing private pictures of countless users, including the Social Network's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
A photo pilfering exploit posted to a bodybuilding.com forum on Monday included step-by-step instructions for viewing pictures designated as private by Facebook users ?

>From theregister.co.uk

Danger. Worm hijacks Facebook accounts to inject banking Trojan - Beware of poisoned photo links

A dangerous worm is using Facebook to spread itself by posting malicious links on the social networking website that point to malware-tainted sites loaded with a variant of the Zeus banking Trojan as well as other nasties.

The malware uses stolen Facebook account credentials to log into compromised accounts and post links, according to security researchers at CSIS in Denmark, who were the first to detect the threat. The malicious links generated by the worm pose as links to a photo file posted by the account-holder's friend or online acquaintance.

In reality the file is a booby-trapped screensaver file with a .jpg file extension. Users have to download and open the file but if tricked into doing so, the consequences can be quite dire ? especially since anti-virus detection rates are quite low.

More details at http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-facebook-worm-in-wild.html

A small array of scripts programmed to pass themselves off as real people stole 250 gigabytes worth of personal information from Facebook users in just eight weeks.
Story here....
 

The Bulldog Estate is a website that provides examples of security issues on Facebook.
If you use Facebook, please be aware of these scams.

The number of scams on that type of website will only increase, not decrease.

BarryZ

Facebook can give your name, address, phone number etc. to their 3rd party application developers.  Did YOU sign up yet as an application deveoper?  Why not?  Wouldn't you like to have everone's personal information?
Read the story....

Facebook President Zuckerburg's page got hacked.
When you connect to Facebook, always use https://
Also, make sure that your computer doesn't have any Malware on it.  Please use our Recommended Anti-Virus software... and be sure that the computer is clean before logging into your bank website and other websites.
The full story...
 

A new survey scam has hoodwinked thousands on Facebook.
Users are being induced into filling out a worthless survey on the false promise of a dubious reward - a reminder of their first ever status message on the social networking website. These false promises appear as status messages from already fooled surfers, touting a rogue virus.  More details at TheRegister
 

More Facebook security issues on TrendMicro's blog. <link>

Hey, what did I tell ya about Farmville on Facebook.  It finally hit the news.

Facebook is a favorite hunting ground for hackers. The vast pool of users offered by this popular social network and the ease with which accounts can be hacked make it a highly attractive channel for spreading malware. Such is the case with the latest variant of a well-known worm: Koobface.GK. The bait consists of a Christmas greetings video hosted on a YouTube page. On playing the video, or clicking a link on the page, users will download and install the worm. Image available here

When the virus is installed on a computer, the following image appears and if users fail to enter the corresponding ?captcha? (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart), it threatens to reboot the computer within three minutes. When the three minutes are up, nothing happens, but the computer is rendered unusable. Every time the captcha text is entered, the worm registers a new domain where the video will be hosted in order to continue being distributed.

Social networks have become one of the methods most frequently used by hackers to spread their creations, due to the false sense of security many users have regarding the content published on these networks. Users generally trust the messages and content they receive, and consequently hackers get a high level of response through these channels.

Don't fall prey and end up getting your computer infected.
Here is a Google Search for current security problems on Facebook.