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Hackers steal 45,000 Facebook passwords

Ramnit worm gets social
Fri Jan 06 2012, 12:46

THE SOCIAL NETWORK Facebook has been hit by a malware worm called Ramnit, which has gained access to the login details of more than 45,000 users.

Security outfit Seculert claims to have discovered the threat and Facebook has confirmed the breach. Seculert claims that most of the victims whose accounts were accessed are in the UK and France.

Facebook said, "Our security experts have reviewed the data, and while the majority of the information was out-of-date, we have initiated remedial steps for all affected users to ensure the security of their accounts."

These remedial steps involve a user's account being 'road blocked' where activity is locked until the user resets their password. The firm went on to say the virus has not been seen spreading on the web site and that it has begun work to step up the level of protection on its anti-virus systems and help users secure devices.

Although Facebook said the virus hasn't been spotted on its web site, Seculert that the hackers behind the malware want to use compromised accounts to spread the virus.

Seculert said, "We suspect that the attackers behind Ramnit are using the stolen credentials to log-in to victims' Facebook accounts and to transmit malicious links to their friends, thereby magnifying the malware's spread even further."

The Ramnit worm was initially discovered in 2010 infecting Windows executable and HTML files to steal sensitive information. Last year it moved on to financial fraud frolics and now it's gone where many potential victims can easily be found, Facebook.

Facebook is advising users to protect themselves by never clicking on strange links and reporting any suspicious activity they discover. µ

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Comments
zardoz has spoken!

hahaha
they deserve it!
facebook is for idiots

posted by : zardoz, 09 January 2012 Complain about this comment
Eggs in a basket

No matter what facebook do, with the amount of user information they have, they will be hacked. They may have already been hacked several times but it just was not made public.

If you value your privacy on any level, avoid this rather obvious hacker target.

posted by : Someone Special, 07 January 2012 Complain about this comment
Use privacy settings and be careful and you'll be ok

Facebook is ok to use if you use the privacy settings and be careful about what you click on and who you befriend on there. The problem with Facebook is that there's so much of an incentive for mischief on there. You have all kinds of Asian hackers on there trying to take over peoples accounts for all kind of uses. This isn't even necessary though because between Facebook ads and numerous 3rd party services at http://www.buyfacebookfansreviews.com there are a nearly unlimited number of ways to accomplish any reasonable goal on Facebook relatively cheaply, so I don't understand why they need to do that. I would mainly recommend just restricting your privacy settings, avoiding posting anything you don't want your friends to know about, don't install Apps that aren't trusted, and follow Facebook's best practices and suggestions and you should be fine.

posted by : Dina James, 06 January 2012 Complain about this comment
More reasons to avoid Facebook

This just reinforces my resolve to never join Facebook. Between their periodic incompetent code changes that make private information public and security lapses this is nothing but a ticking time bomb for fraud, virus spreading, and hacking.

posted by : Don Le Roy, 06 January 2012 Complain about this comment
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