Koobface Virus Targets Facebook Users

With 120 million users Facebook is increasingly becoming the target of virus writers. Facebook users are being advised that a new threat has been uncovered which is being dubbed the Koobface virus. The virus is propagated via Facebook's messaging system and shows up as a message with subject headers like, “You look just awesome in this new movie,” upon opening the message the user is directed to a website which prompts them to download a file that it claims is an update of Adobe's Flash player. Once infected the virus takes users to contaminated sites when they try to visit search engines from Google, Yahoo, MSN and Live.com. Facebook is telling members to delete contaminated e-mails and has provided directions on how to clean infected computers at http://www.facebook.com/security.

Globe and Mail story.

OpenOffice.org target of virus writters?

In a recent press release OpenOffice.org has acknowledged that it is possible that virus writers may have targeted their open source office suite via it's macro support. The OpenOffice.org security team has apparently not received a copy of the reported virus, "SB/BadBunny-A", and will respond once they have had an opportunity to analyze the threat. While I have not personally tried the OpenOffice.org product I have heard good things about the software and support the idea of open source. I am sure that with Sun Microsystems behind it, it is a solid suite of products and should be considered a contender when you are looking for office software at home or a work. The price is definitely right! I will give it a download and a serious look once the virus threat has been addressed. I should stress that the other major office suites are constantly marked as targets of virus authors so my reservations for downloading at the moment are not because I think OpenOffice.org is more vulnerable than my current office suite. I'm also not inclined to open files from anyone that I don't know or that I am not expecting files from, even if I know them; this is just good practice.