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A slew of recent spam attacks on Facebook has had a number of users reporting hijacked accounts, says the New York Times.
“Over the past few days, we have received reports from users of spam and phishing attacks,” the company said in a statement. “We have also detected and contained a worm. We are investigating every report, removing false content, blocking bogus links and addressing the concerns of our users. These efforts have limited the affected users to a small percentage of those on Facebook.”
The social network blogged about worm attacks earlier this month, saying they have “identified and blocked the ability to link to the malicious websites from anywhere on Facebook,” and that “less than .002 percent of people on Facebook have been affected.” And they've also been pointing users to their security page to help deal with the threat.
But recently things seem to be getting worse for the site which has for the most part remained spam-free, as more complaints roll in.
They say that some of the attacks are linked to a worm called Koobface that has been a problem since July for both Facebook and MySpace.
A definition of the mode of attacks are described on the Kaspersky Internet security firm site:
“The messages and comments include texts such as Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street; Examiners Caught Downloading Grades From The Internet; Hello; You must see it!!! LOL. My friend catched you on hidden cam; Is it really celebrity? Funny Moments and many others.”
While these links may sound... intriguing, it should be fairly obvious that these are not your usual wall post. And a few malicious links shouldn't turn away many of the now 100 million registered users.
Facebook Gets Friended By Malware [New York Times]
*Photo: Flickr/rickharris
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