Facebook Users and Other Social Networkers Beware Today

....and every day for that matter as a notorious worm called Koobface (doh, a little play on Facebook) is back as the writers of viruses turn their attention to hand held devices and other gadgets having been mostly defeated in the home PC laptop environment, although while not completely defeated they have been neutralized more than ever as people become generally more pc savvy than ever.

This worm snags people's address book information and other personal goodies it can lcoate on the device

Don't open or click on strange messages, emails, or video's basically it's that simple to avoid..

However they can now reach the tech newbies through all their little gadgets and cell phones they use to practically talk to anyone nowadays, a trend that to me even as a blogger and user of facebook troubling as there's no replacement for good old face to face human contact in my book. (unless of coarse it's with a liberal, then the gadget is preferable)

Symantec calls it low risk basically because it's limited to mobile devices, but should you contract it here's how to remove it and with what,

Facebook Insecurity: The Worm Returns | bMighty.com:

Blogs For Small Business and Mid-Sized Business: "Facebook and other social network users need to be on the alert for the return of the Koobface worm, which sniffs out cookies associated with social nets, then uses that info to spread itself to other network members.

Call it anti-social networking.

The Koobface (rearrange the letters to see just how clever the malware writers are )worm, last seen tagging Facebook users late last year has returned, and is cutting a new path through compromised computers whose users are on Facebook and other social networks.

According to Trend Micro, the worm looks for browser cookies associated with social networks including:

* facebook.com
* hi5.com
* friendster.com
* myyearbook.com
* myspace.com
* bebo.com
* tagged.com
* netlog.com
* fubar.com
* livejournal.com"

and having found one and grabbed the user's login, sends messages, containing malware site links, to the user's friends list.

As social networks become more and more accepted as business tools (and, for that matter, as more and more employees use company equipment for personal social networking) it's important that your employees bear in mind that the very qualities that attract users to social nets are attracting crooks as well.

Sound security procedures must be matched by well-defined social networking usage policies, not least of which is a bit of commonsense that should be shared with every user:

Just because a communication looks like it comes from a friend within the network doesn't mean it does, especially if it contains an "irresistible" link to some video or information.

In other words, tell your social networking employees to Think Before They Click.

Once you have your security house in order and your social networking rules the rules in place -- and followed! -- and are ready to put social networks safely to work for your business, don't miss bMighty's:

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