22. November 2009 · Comments Off on Koobface botnet creates fake Facebook accounts to lure you to fake Facebook or YouTube page · Categories: Botnets, IT Security 2.0, Malware, Network Security, Next Generation Firewalls, Risk Management, Security Policy · Tags: , ,

TrendMicro's Malware Blog posted information about a new method of luring Facebook users to a fake Facebook or Youtube page to infect the user with the Koobface malware agent. 

The Koobface botnet has pushed out a new component that automates the following routines:

  • Registering a Facebook account
  • Confirming an email address in Gmail to activate the registered Facebook account
  • Joining random Facebook groups
  • Adding Facebook friends
  • Posting messages to Facebook friends’ walls

Overall, this new component behaves like a regular Internet user that starts to connect with friends in Facebook. All Facebook accounts registered by this component are comparable to a regular account made by a human. 

Here is yet another example of the risks associated with allowing Facebook to be used within the enterprise. However simply blocking Facebook may not be an option either because (1) it's demotivating to young employees used to accessing Facebook, or (2) it's a good marketing/sales tool you want to take advantage of.

Your network security solution, for example a next generation firewall, must enable you to implement fine grained policy control and threat prevention for social network sites like Facebook.