AVG Technologies: Hackers using automated Facebook profiles to spread malware
According to a last week blog post by antivirus and Internet security firm AVG Technologies, hackers have worked out a way to create computer-generated fraudulent Facebook profiles, which they are using to dupe credulous users into installing spyware.Reports of the Facebook spyware incidentally coincides with a recent FBI warning saying that social networking sites are increasingly being used by cybercriminals to spread malware.
As per the AVG, the users of its LinkScanner – which screen webpages in real time – have reported the detection of “rogue spyware attacks” being spread via Facebook pages.
Elaborating about the hacker-attacks aimed at spreading malware, AVG Research Chief Roger Thompson said that most of the deceptive profiles show the same image of a blue-eyed blonde woman, though with slight variations in names and birthdates.
Though the LinkScanner has come across “hundreds” of supposedly phony pages, Thompson told The Reg that the pages probably run in thousands. He added: “There are enough of them that it’s probably an indication of an automated attack. I just can’t see someone creating the same profile time after time after time.”
The reported creation of a notably huge number of automated Facebook profiles by the hackers clearly shows that they have successfully circumvented Facebook’s CAPTCHA system, whereby a user a required to retype a series of given letters to activate an account!
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