Microsoft adds Koobface to malware removal tool

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) has been working with Facebook to protect the popular social networking site from the malicious Koobface virus.

MMPC principal group program manager Jeff Williams explained on the Facebook blog last week that Microsoft's virus detection and removal tool (MSRT) has removed Koobface 200,000 times from over 133,677 computers.

MMPC worked with Facebook to add detection of Koobface to the latest version of Microsoft's MSRT, released two weeks ago, Williams explained on the blog.

The virus spreads through spam messages on the social networking site that invite users to click on a link. The link takes users to a malicious site where they are prompted to download a Trojan masked as an Adobe Flash update, email security experts said.

The Trojan could allow an attacker to remotely steal a victim's Facebook password and other information or use the computer to launch attacks on other computers.

The virus, which began infecting computers in May 2008, is "highly polymorphic," with over 20,000 variations to date, Williams explained.

"Sometimes we remove the virus from the same computer more than once," he wrote. "We're also working to detect new variants of the Koobface virus as they're discovered, so we can provide ongoing protection from this threat."

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