Was there a worm virus that had Facebook operations down on August 30?
The virus appears to be a slightly modified version of what Kaspersky Labs called Koobface; a worm elaborate in its design, but crude in execution. Utilizing the same poorly worded social engineering tricks, the worm sends messages in Facebook with subject lines like “Hi My Friend,” or “Hej!” and contains a verbose link to a video that claims to feature the recipient in some way. Instead of loading a video, it says the user’s version of Flash is out of date and needs a new codec. Attempting to click on any part of the video player, including the sender’s profile information, the fake comments, or settings, results in a forced download. Koobface virus package contents Up to this point where the user downloads the file entitled “codecsetup.exe”, the worm’s methods are exactly the same. Once the “codec” file is opened, it creates a file called “fbtre9.exe”, different from the Koobface.A profile, which created a file called “mstre6.exe.” This appears to be the sole difference between the t
Worms and botnets still do remain a threat, however as the recent attacks that temporarily crippled Twitter and Facebook last month demonstrate. Networks of infected computers, or botnets, were widely used as weapons in conflicts in Estonia in 2007 and in Georgia last year, and in more recent attacks against South Korean and U.S. government agencies. Sources: http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/2009/08/31/0831conficker.
