A prevalent social networking worm, Koobface, is present in sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, and Friendster. On these sites and various operating systems, this may appear in various places such as wall posts and direct messages. A new deviation of the worm, called Boonana, has been released and is aimed at Mac users. Boonana posts a message on these social networking platforms that says something suspicious like “Is this you in the video?” and includes a faulty link. When clicked, a prompt to run a Java applet will appear. This has the capabilities to issue commands, steal usernames and passwords, and hide it from security software.
Boonana works similarly to Koobface (an anagram of Facebook) through the use of spammed messages. Many Mac users may choose not to have Java enabled on their computer, especially since it seems to be the subject of various malicious attempts. Apple is in the process of discontinuing it from their operating systems.
As social media networks continue to grow in popularity, they will continue to be the subject of viruses. Therefore, it is important to keep these worms in mind so that you do not fall vulnerable to them. In order to keep your computer safe, you want to remember certain safe browsing techniques. Try to stick to familiar websites and be careful when seeing links on social media networks. Always be careful on what links you click and items you download. When using OS X, be sure to turn on the Firewall as well as security software.
Read the full article at Computer World.
Great to highlight this right now as more people are getting on social media sites and explore its value. We too have been seeing more viruses that are tracing back to web sites. I would like to add that Adobe pdf's have also been a recent source of viruses. We traced 2 incidents back to pdfs on MSN.com and Charles Swab's web site. Keep Adobe Reader updates up to date and don't run anything older than version 9.
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