A six-year-old Trojan horse program known as Zeus is alive and well on Facebook and it’s capable of draining your bank accounts.
Zeus has infected millions of computers in the United States and is activated the moment a Facebook user with the malware installed logs into a banking account.
The virus steals a users passwords and then drains their bank account of all its funds.
The program is sophisticated enough that it can replace a bank’s Web site with a mimicked page of its very own. The fake page can then ask for social security number information and other data that is then sold on the black market.
According to researchers at Trend Micro the number of systems infected with Zeus have steadily increased thanks to the malware appearing in fake messages posted throughout the Facebook social network.
Fake messages such as “Bring the N.F.L. to Los Angeles” have spread the malware to users who click on links believing they are being taken to a legitimate website.
According to Trend Micro the pages are being hosted by the Russian criminal gang known as the Russian Business Network.
Facebook has reportedly been slow to respond to the malware scare which may have led to millions of additional users being infected with the Zeus malware.
Facebook does however remind users that it actively scans for malware and offers users the opportunity to enroll in self-remediation procedures such as a “Scan-And-Repair malware scan” which can search for and remove malware for a users various devices.
Do you think we need more oversight in terms of protecting social network users against dangerous malware?
Great. So are antivirus programs catching stuff like this?
Lovely. So if it is a 5 year old virus is it still current in all the antivirus software?
That is crazy, I do think that Facebook should be doing everything they can in order to stop this, because it is happening on their website; but I do think that people need to be aware of this, for how old it is, it is the first I'm hearing about it.
I understand this is for Windows-based machines.
The reason why it has been out there in cyber space for 5 years, is because people keep spreading it! Just one click and bam it's shared with your friends which then click on it. As far as antivirus, if you keep it up to date and scan your computer like you are suppose to, you shouldn't have an issue. The main thing is to use your brain before you click…if something does not look/sound right or sounds too good to be true, then don't click on it! And if you check your bank account pretty regularly and know the "protocol", then if out of the blue they start asking you about your SS# and all…again use your brain! A lot of things can be adverted if you just stop and think before clicking.
I am surprised this is the first time I have heard of this virus. I am very cautious when using facebook (clicking on people's posts). I am one of the few that doesn't have a virus, or whatever it is, posting on by behalf on my friends lists. I really hope that this will get cleared up fast.
I have not herd of this but I'm always careful what I click on if it looks like spam I don't click on it.