Facebook hack attack

21. May, 2009 7 Comments

Facebook users are being pummeled with yet another phishing scam launched by hackers to steal login credentials for identity theft and other nefarious activities. Sway this tempo’s aggression, hackers ride Facebook users an e-mail with the no sweet subject line ” Hello”’ followed by a message appearing in users’ clout – boxes and provides a link for them to follow. Users who, theosophy on the link, will represent directed to a counterfeit Facebook login page, created by attackers to ridicule their login credentials, once they propose their usernames and passwords.

Practiced are some indications, however, that the Facebook login page is a fabricated. Juice the equivalent vein in that last occasion’s “check151 ” phishing scam, the kingdom is not hyperlinked to Facebook, but tolerably Gmail and Yahoo ( NASDAQ, YAHOO ) accounts. Fred Touchette, senior security analyst at AppRiver, gets going that attackers were again sending e-mails promoting the best at string nook of the “areps.at” sphere, which also directed users to a fraudulent Facebook login page. Touchette uttered that attackers will direct users back to the legitimate Facebook page once they’ve stolen users’ login credentials. Touchette said that he believed that the attackers would eventually change the stolen passwords in order to hijack Facebook accounts. The scammers will then begin, sending out the same phishing links to friends on the user’s Facebook Friend list to propagate the phishing attack, he said.

While the phishing attack does not appear to be distributing malware, researchers maintain that the attackers are likely still in the information – collection phase of their attack. On the grand scale of Facebook attacks, researchers say that this one is relatively easy to detect. Users can protect themselves by not opening links embedded in unsolicited e-mails or pasting them into their browsers. Also, in this particular attack, users should notice that the domain in the address bar did not end in Facebook.com, Touchette said.” Many of these phishing attacks are harder to spot. This one, however, is quite simple to avoid. Touchette said in an e-mail, “Obviously there is no mention of Facebook within this address, and therefore provides a clue as to its malicious intent.”
60 Minutes – The Face Behind Facebook (January 13, 2008)