KOOBFACE guys CAUGHT : FACEBOOK

1. Koobface is not something new for the cybercrime followers.....some thing in brief for those reading about this first timehere :

- is a computer worm that targets users of the Facebook.

- koob is book spelled backwards, making the name koobface an anagram for the word Facebook.

- Koobface targets Facebook users via fake friend messages that encourages people to click on links that installs a malicious worm

- Messages like, "you look funny in this video" or "you look so stupid in this pic" are used to persuade somone to click on the link attached. Once the user clicks on them it takes you to a video which doesn't play and they ask you to download certain codecs which can be a fake 'flash_player.exe' file.

- If this file is downloaded, your computer becomes open to Koobface malware.

- It downloads a file 'tinyproxy.exe' which hijacks your PC.

- It even alters search results from Google, Yahoo etc and redirects to websites selling malicious softwares.

- Kaspersky Labs has estimated the network includes 400,000 to 800,000 PCs worldwide at its height in 2010.

- Victims are often unaware their machines have been compromised.

2. Facebook two days back unmasked the team behind the notorious Koobface virus that hit the social network for two years beginning in 2008.

ABOUT THE GANG

- Five men believed to be responsible for spreading this notorious computer worm on Facebook.

- Have pocketed several million dollars from online schemes.

- Are likely hiding in plain sight in St. Petersburg, Russia, according to investigators at Facebook.

- One member of the group has regularly broadcast the coordinates of its offices by checking in on Foursquare, a location-based social network, and posting the news to Twitter.

- Photographs on Foursquare also show other suspected members of the group working on Macs in a loftlike room that looks like offices used by tech start-ups in cities around the world.

- Ultimately, the Koobface gang was identified by the researchers as Anton Korotchenko, Alexander Koltyshev, Roman Koturbach, Syvatoslav Polinchuk, and Stanislav Avdeik.

3. Thanks http://www.pcmag.com