If you receive an email from a friend on Facebook that states someone has added a new photo of you, don’t open it. Instead, go on Facebook directly to see if a friend added a photo of you on the website. There is a spammer who’s been sending fake emails from Facebook in hopes of tricking users into downloading a malware virus.
The email looks something similar to this: ” Your friend added a new photo with you to the album” (though cybercriminals can easily alter it) and appears to come from an e-mail like “[email protected]” (again, this can be changed). The attached file is named “New_Photo_With_You_on_Facebook_PHOTOID[random].zip” where “random” is a generated number.”
Sophos detected the virus first under Troj/Agent-XNN. The file, which takes up about 61KB copies itself to “C:Documents and SettingsAll Userssvchost.exe”. It also takes disguise as a Sun Java updater and injects itself onto the Windows registry, so it’s ensured that it starts up when the computer is booted up.
Screenshots show that the spammers took great detail to trick people by mimicking the blue Facebook design.
It seems like there is always a new computer virus that’s going around, it can be hard to keep up with all the warnings and reports. It’s always a good idea to exercise a few cautionary rules when it comes to using the internet. You should never open emails or download files from people you don’t know. You should also invest in a quality anti-malware software from Norton or McAfee. There are free versions out there, but paid versions usually provide better protection. It’s also a smart idea to scan your computer at least every two weeks, if not every week. Another thing to know is the signs of an infected computer which include, but are not limited to, slower computer performance, a browser that keeps crashing, and the blue/blue screen of death. If your computer exhibits these signs, you can either try to detect or remove the virus yourself, or you can take it to a PC professional.
