The Hacker News - Cybersecurity News and Analysis: Facebook malware

A new powerful rootkit-enabled spyware operation has been discovered wherein hackers are distributing multifunctional malware disguised as cracked software or trojanized app posing as legitimate software like video players, drivers and even anti-virus products. While the rootkit malware—dubbed Scranos —which was first discovered late last year, still appears to be a work in progress, it is continuously evolving, testing new components and regularly making an improvement to old components, which makes it a significant threat. Scranos features a modular design that has already gained capabilities to steal login credentials and payment accounts from various popular services, exfiltrate browsing history and cookies, get YouTube subscribers, display ads, as well as download and execute any payload. According to a 48 page in-depth report Bitdefender shared with The Hacker News prior to its release, the malware gains persistence on infected machines by installing a digitally-signed

Luring users on social media to visit lookalike version of popular websites that pop-up a legitimate-looking Chrome extension installation window is one of the most common modus operandi of cybercriminals to spread malware. Security researchers are again warning users of a new malware campaign that has been active since at least March this year and has already infected more than 100,000 users worldwide. Dubbed Nigelthorn, the malware is rapidly spreading through socially engineered links on Facebook and infecting victims' systems with malicious browser extensions that steal their social media credentials, install cryptocurrency miners, and engage them in click fraud. The malware was pushed through at least seven different Chrome browser extensions—all were hosted on Google's official Chrome Web Store. These malicious Chrome browser extensions were first discovered by researchers at cybersecurity firm Radware, after a "well-protected network" of one of its custo

If you came across any Facebook message with a video link sent by anyone, even your friend — just don't click on it. Security researchers at Kaspersky Lab have spotted an ongoing cross-platform campaign on Facebook Messenger, where users receive a video link that redirects them to a fake website, luring them to install malicious software. Although it is still unclear how the malware spreads, researchers believe spammers are using compromised accounts, hijacked browsers, or clickjacking techniques to spread the malicious link. The attackers make use of social engineering to trick users into clicking the video link, which purports to be from one of their Facebook friends, with the message that reads "< your friend name > Video" followed by a bit.ly link, as shown. Here's How this Cross-Platform Malware Works: The URL redirects victims to a Google doc that displays a dynamically generated video thumbnail, like a playable movie, based on the sender'

If you came across a celebrity sex video on Facebook featuring Jessica Alba or any other celebrity, just avoid clicking it. Another Facebook scam is circulating across the social networking website that attempts to trick Facebook users into clicking on a link for a celebrity sex tape that instead downloads malware onto their computers. Once installed, the malware would force web browsers to display aggressive advertising web pages which include sites with nudity and fake lotteries. The spam campaign was uncovered by researchers at Cyren, who noted that a malicious Google Chrome extension is spreading nude celebrity PDFs through private messages and posts on various Facebook groups. If opened, the PDF file takes victims to a web page with an image containing a play button, tricking users that the PDF may contain a video. Once clicked, the link redirects users of Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari to a web page with overly-aggressive popups and advertisements related to

If you receive an image file sent by someone, even your friend, on your Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn or any other social media platform, just DO NOT CLICK ON IT. Even JPG image file could eventually infect your computer with the infamous Locky Ransomware . Earlier this week, we reported a new attack campaign that used Facebook Messenger to spread Locky Ransomware via .SVG image files, although Facebook denied this was the case. Now, researchers have discovered that the ongoing spam campaign is also using boobytrapped .JPG image files in order to download and infect users with the Locky Ransomware via Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking platforms. Security researchers from Israeli security firm Check Point have reportedly discovered how cyber criminals are hiding malware in image files, and how they are executing the malware code within these images to infect social media users with Locky variants. According to researchers, malware authors have discovered secu

If you came across any Facebook Message with an image file (exactly .SVG file format) send by any of your Facebook friends, just avoid clicking it. An ongoing Facebook spam campaign is spreading malware downloader among Facebook users by taking advantage of innocent-looking SVG image file to infect computers. If clicked, the file would eventually infect your PC with the nasty Locky Ransomware , a family of malware that has quickly become one of the favorite tools among criminals due to its infecting capabilities. Discovered by malware researcher Bart Blaze , the attack campaign uses Facebook Messenger to spread a malware downloader called Nemucod that takes the form of .SVG image files. Why SVG file? Hackers considered SVG (or Scalable Vector Graphics) files for spreading the malware downloader, because SVG has the ability to contain embedded content such as JavaScript, and can be opened in a modern web browser. Crooks added their malicious JavaScript code right inside th

Facebook users just Beware!! Don't click any porn links on Facebook. Foremost reason is that you have thousands of good porn sites out there, but there's an extra good reason right now. Rogue pornography links on the world's most popular social network have reportedly infected over 110,000 Facebook users with a malware Trojan in just two days and it is still on the rise, a security researcher warned Friday. The Facebook malware disguised as a Flash Player update and spreads itself by posting links to a pornographic video from the Facebook accounts of previously infected users. The malware generally tags as many as 20 friends of the infected user . "In the new technique, which we call it ' Magnet ,' the malware gets more visibility to potential victims by tagging the friends of the victim in the malicious post," said Mohammad Faghani, a senior consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a mailing list post to the Full Disclosure infosec hangout.  "A tag may

Apple's iPhone 6 FREE ? Of course not ! It's only a hoax, but scammers have announced the just release iPhone 6 free. Another Facebook scam is circulating across the popular social networking website just days after Apple unveiled its upcoming iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as scammers take advantage of all the hype and use them to lure Facebook users. THREE SIMPLE STEPS AND iPHONE 6 IS YOURS — REALLY? As usual, This new scam promises a chance to Win a free iPhone 6 to those users who complete a series of steps, as reported by Hoax-Slayer. You just need to go through "three easy steps" to get a chance to win the device: Like the Facebook page created to propagate the scam Share the page with your Facebook friends Download a "Participation Application" But before you proceed to the last step, a pop-up window leads you to participate in a survey before you can download the application. The survey will ask you to share your name, address, p

Scammers spare no incident to target as many victims as possible, and this time they are exploiting the tragic death of comic actor Robin Williams by offering the fake Facebook videos proclaiming a Goodbye video message that Williams made before his death. According to Symantec, this fake Facebook post, which you may see on your walls shared by your Facebook friends, was created by scammers looking to profit on the actor's death. The bogus post claims to be a Goodbye video of Robin Williams making his last phone call before committing suicide earlier this week. Scammers and cyber criminals often use major headline news stories to lure in victims. You may fall victim to this video as the news claims to have come from the most popular and reputed BBC News website. " There is no video. Users that click on the link to the supposed video are taken to a fake BBC News website. As with many social scams, users are required to perform actions before they can view the content. In t

Once again Facebook is on The Hacker News ! This time not for any scam or surveillance, but for a different reason.  The social networking giant has managed to take down a Greek botnet that used Facebook to spread malware and infected 250,000 computers to mine crypto-currencies, steal bitcoins, email passwords and banking details. Facebook is always one of the favourite weapon of cyber criminals, cyber thieves and scammers due to its popularity among other social media platforms. This social networking platform, with more than one billion active users, provides special opportunities for people to connect and share information, as well as also serves a great platform for malware developers and scammers. The botnet, dubbed as Lecpetex , was around from December 2013 to last month and compromised around 50,000 Facebook accounts at its peak, under which users would receive spam Facebook messages that would typically like "lol" with a zip archive attachment . O

If you came across any suspicious Facebook message with ' LOL ' text or a fake Image file send by any of your Facebook friend, avoid clicking it. A Trojan horse is currently circulating in wild through the Facebook social network that could steal your Facebook account data and Credentials. Security researchers spotted  this malware campaign first in the beginning of March this year, where the Trojan spreads itself through the Facebook's Messenger service (inbox) by messaging a victim pretending to be one of their friends saying "LOL" with a zip file attached, which appears to be a photo, named " IMG_xxxx.zip ". In Past two weeks, many of our readers informed us that they received similar ZIP files from their trusted Facebook friends. The Hacker News team also noticed that despite after several warnings in media, once again the malware campaign just goes viral like any other video scam , but this time directly through users' inbox-to-inbox. HOW DOES

If you see any wall post or inbox message -- saying, " Warning!!! Facebook Security Warning!!! Do this before your account gets deactivated! ," and urges you to follow some steps to reactivate your Facebook account, then just ignore it; It's a Facebook Scam! Facebook has become one of the most popular website with more than one billion active users this year. Hundreds of people join the social networking website to reconnect with their old friends and get a chance to make new friends. But, with the increase in various scams on Facebook to target users, it became very clear that not only does the social networking platform provide special opportunities for people to connect and share information; it also serves as a great and useful platform for scammers. Once again scammers have targeted Facebook users by spreading new kind of scam that threatens users with account deactivation if they don't register it again. " Attention : to all facebook users Your

Hackers are very smart on gaining from every opportunity they get and this time the lost  Malaysian Airlines flight MH370  gave them a chance to hijack, not the plane, but you all sitting over their operating your Facebook account and having an eye on every news related to the Mysterious Malaysian plane. Spammers are taking advantage of the lost Malaysian plan and spam spreading malware on the Facebook, abusing the mystery behind the Malaysia airplane MH370 that has gone missing by the time it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The hackers are redirecting Facebook users to the malicious websites using a fake Facebook post, claims that missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370,  a Boeing 777-200 aircraft  has been found in the Bermuda Triangle with its passengers still alive and invites users to click a link to view breaking news video footage. Title of the fake video: Malaysia Plane MH370 Has Been Spotted Somewhere Near Bermuda Triangle. Shocking Videos Release Today. When the user