Author: Kristen A. Yarmey

The University of Scranton’s Information Security Office has released a memo warning the University community about the Koobface worm.

Here’s the official word:

The University’s Information Security Office has received official notice from the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team about the increasing threat of the Koobface worm.  This computer malware targets users of social networking sites such as facebook.com, friendster.com and myspace.com with the intent of stealing personally identifiable information and credit card information.  There are approximately 60 reported Koobface variants, all of which entice users to click on a link to a fake video hosting website with messages such as “This is a video of you on the street.”  These messages can appear to be sent from someone the user knows whose profile has already been compromised…

Users are advised to ignore messages similar to the one above and refrain from clicking links in unsolicited message, even out of curiosity.  For more information about this and other malware threats, please contact security@scranton.edu.

You can find more information about Koobface from McAfee or Symantec.