This Christmas Facebook and other social-network sites users can have their PC freeze up if they are not cautious.
Hackers are reportedly exploiting social networkers with a new variant of the Koobface virus disguised as a Festive greetings video, hosted on a YouTube site, reports PandaLabs.
It seems like when the virus is installed on a computer, the victim sees a warning message requiring them to solve a CAPTCHA (completely automated public turing test to tell computers and humans apart).
It then threatens to reboot the computer within three minutes. After the three minutes are up, nothing happens, but the computer is rendered unusable.
Everytime the Captcha text is entered, the worm registers a new domain where the video will be hosted in order to continue being distributed.
According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “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”.
Internet security company Panda Security recommends that users do not reply to or follow links included in unsolicited Facebook messages and users should always carefully check that the URL they are entering is really that of the site they want to access.
So, please be on the guard and don’t freeze up your Christmas along with your pc.
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