I am republishing this story written by a fellow marketer, Rebecca Ryan because it is important information for anyone venturing into Social Media and especially Facebook.

Cyber scammers, spammers and malicious hackers have devious ways to spread their mal-ware and infect global computer users via mass emails containing the latest news or tweets with dubious links.  Another ploy is to hack Facebook accounts offering web-links that divert unwitting subscribers to a web-page offering more information such as videos, pictures or something considered news worthy, trending or by falling back on more classic tactics that work on your ego or fears.  They pounce on every opportunity to trick Internet users.

Yesterday a record number of Facebook users were  infected with viruses and mal-ware as users searched and clicked on “Osama’s Death Pictures” or “Osama’s Death Videos”.  I received 3 requests to click before noon but my first thought was how morbid it was. What has this world come to? As the links kept posting on my Facebook Wall, especially from random people,  I knew it was most likely a vicious mal-ware attack.

What can you do when you keep getting these posts and what if you get infected?

First, always be cautious whenever you click on a link, join a group that has a download or sends you to a page outside of Facebook’s interface.  Mal-ware is commonly disguised with subjects like, “Look who’s viewed your Facebook”, “Top viewers” and “Look what I found”.   Other possibilities are holiday themed, deceptively clever newsworthy links such as about Japan’s devastation, the Royal Wedding and now the currently trending Osama’s Death Pictures.  I expect this weekend will have dubious Mother’s Day links.  Those types of enticing links are more often then not instruments to infect and spread malicious viruses to you and all your friends.

For Facebook members, your first line of defense is to assess if the posts seem genuine, meant for you or suspicious.  If suspicious, don’t click on the post! Click on the sender’s profile to check if there is unnatural activity on their Wall  such as  sending out the same posts to several of their Facebook friends.  Next, post a comment to the Sender’s Wall explaining that you believe their account has been compromised. Finally, return to your Wall and immediately delete the post before your Facebook “friends” click on it.

Steps to Avoid Downloading Cyber-Scumware

What can you do to protect yourself, your friends or if you end up with a compromised Facebook account?

  • Check the sender
  • Don’t click on unsolicited links on your Wall, in a chat window or download anything from people that rarely post to you, or the link seems random or unnatural or if link goes to an unknown website.
  • Ask the sender, especially via chat, if they meant to send you the link. If you get no response deem it mal-ware until they do respond.
  • If you’re sent to a web page outside of Facebook don’t click on any pop-ups. I recommend that you get familiar with the keystrokes required to close the window. You can test this by opening a new window and hold down both the ALT & F4.

Did you know?

Just an hour before the news on Osama bin Laden broke, there were roughly 2.5 million page views per second on Facebook pages and Akamai said from 10:45 pm to 2:20 am EST there was an average of 3,000 messages per second on Twitter.

Cyber scammers, spammers and malicious hackers look for the best opportunities to unleash their devious junk to spread their mal-ware to the largest amount of people before being caught, blocked or before anti-virus software has issued updates to prevent future infiltrations.

Bad intention spammers and hackers rely on newsworthy trends as opportunities to lure 100’s of thousands of innocent Internet users. They’ll seek media frenzy as a platform to unleash malicious viruses.  We should expect them to become more clever and we need to be prepared in the event of an infected.

5 Steps To Try if Your Facebook Account has been Compromised

  • Immediately reset your password. Generate a unique and complex password with numbers and upper and lower case letters.  Avoid using the same password for any other sites or you have already put your account at risk.
  • Verify all email addresses associated with your Facebook account on the “Contact Email” section at https://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php
  • From your Facebook page go to the “Account Settings” page, complete a unique security question and click on the link next to “Account Security” at the bottom of the page. Select the option to receive notifications for logins from new devices and whenever you log in with a new device or location such as home computer, phone or work. I recommend that you have it also text you when a new location has been added.
  • If you downloaded a malicious file, or suspect you have been infected by malware, go to Facebook Roadblock, you will regain control of your Facebook account and remove the mal-ware  from your computer.
  • Facebook also started “Two Factor Authentication”, a new feature to help prevent unauthorized access to your account. If you turn this new feature on, it will ask you to enter a code anytime you try to log into Facebook from a new device. This additional security helps confirm that it’s really you trying to log in. But looks very annoying

For more useful information go to https://www.facebook.com/safety and select “Tools & Resources”

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