Evading the Facebook worm

The Facebook worm is back, said Gregg Keizer in Computerworld. And this time the malware that plagued gullible Facebook users around the world in December is hitting users of MySpace, Friendster, LiveJournal, and other social-networking websites as well. Like the first variant, the new Koobface worm "tries to dupe users into clicking on a link that's included in a message from a friend."

As always, said Brian Krebs in The Washington Post, "practicing basic online street smarts can save you from falling for these types of attacks." To protect yourself, "be extremely cautious about clicking on links in unsolicited messages, even if they appear to have been sent by a friend." And never install applications or programs you didn't go looking for.

Users aren't the only ones to blame when worms strike, said Britain's The Independent. Facebook has been hit by five security problems in the past week, and security experts blame Facebook's "laissez-faire approach to the vetting of new utilities on the site." That's another reason people out to steal data find it so easy to "exploit users' trust" in Facebook.

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