Facebook Working To Eliminate Fraudsters
Facebook members are being faced with new phishing threats from fraudsters, and the social networking giant has announced a partnership with Internet security firm MarkMonitor to better protect its users from becoming vulnerable to attacks.
On Wednesday and Thursday, some Facebook members received messages from friends with a link, instructing them to “check this out.” After clicking the link, users were taken to a mock Facebook login page used by cybercriminals to steal password and personal information.
In Thursday’s attacks, users were directed to the site “FBStarter.com” and on Wednesday, the site was “BAction.net,” according to CNN.
Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said both attacks were intercepted within a few hours of being launched. He added that it was too early to determine whether the two attacks were related.
In order to stop a known attack, Facebook deletes the URL from members’ pages, blocks new postings and removes the redirect to the URL that appears in e-mail messages, said Schnitt.
"We’ve already blocked www.fbstarter.com from being shared on Facebook, which stops this from spreading," a Facebook spokeswoman told AFP.
"We also blocked access to the URL so if someone does find it on Facebook (on their wall, in their inbox, or in an email notification) it won’t send them to the destination."
The company then notifies MarkMonitor, which distributes the URL to major browsers to be placed on their list of blocked sites.
"The meteoric success of Facebook makes it a natural target for malware attacks that seek to capitalize on their trusted and recognizable brand," said MarkMonitor chief marketing officer Frederick Felman.
"Our experience … allows us to expertly address Facebook’s concerns about malware and phishing, and to help protect their platform and their users from ongoing attacks."
"MarkMonitor demonstrated that it understood the complexity of the phishing issue we were facing so it was a natural next step for us to bolster our own security systems with their anti-malware solution," said Facebook threat analyst Ryan McGeehan.
Schnitt’s advice to Facebook members is: "If something looks a little strange you should check the address bar."
"People should have a healthy dose of suspicion,” he said.
—
On the Net: