Data published on site – name, birth date, address, employment details, email and phone numbers – is a windfall for the hackers, the participants at the Campus Party, one of the largest gatherings of World of Internet enthusiasts, he said.
A vicious virus Koobface – "Koob" be "book" in reverse – has affected thousands of users from Twitter and Facebook since August 2008, said Asier MartÃnez, an IT security specialist global provider of security solutions Panda.
"His outreach has been very significant and has been detected in 4,000 different ways," he told AFP in the case of a week that wraps Sunday in Valencia in eastern Spain.
The virus hijacks the accounts of users of social networking site and sends messages to friends address hostile sites coontaining malware, malicious software designed to infiltrate a system often for illegal purposes.
In one of its variants, the victim Koobface sends a warning that your version of Flash Player is outdated, with an invitation to download a new version, which is actually the virus.
Malware can be used to steal data from bank account or credit card, once installed on a personal computer.
Facebook has tried to resist virus attacks and similar Koobface by blocking links to hostile and close the accounts of users who show signs of infection, such as sending too many messages.
"It must be very careful with people who ask your friends list," said Laura Garcia, who writes a popular blog on Internet security, and added that hackers often send requests.
Another danger of social networking sites are popular competitions, horoscopes and games available for free to users who can sometimes be used to hide the links to hostile sites, he added.
And birthday greetings and messages sent during Christmas and other holidays may also appear to come from friends when they are directly linked to sites that try to convince potential victims to reveal personal information like passwords or numbers bank, said Martinez.
The vulnerability of social networking sites was highlighted in a survey by security firm Sophos announced earlier this month.
We found that about half of all businesses in the United States a block of some or all access to them due to concerns about the incursions across the cyber sites.
Facebook says that less than one percent of its users have been affected by a security problem, like a virus, since the site opened in 2004.
Garcia said that the number of viruses detected in recent years has skyrocketed, while the profile of offenders has changed.
"I was very skilled in adolescents who wanted to demonstrate their skills. Now you do not really need to know much about information technology to be a hacker, all tools that have already been created," he said.
Real crime syndicates have taken, especially in Russia, China, Brazil and Ukraine, whose objectives are purely economic gain, he said, stressing that piracy could be very lucrative.
For an initial investment of $ 1500 (1,050 euros) for MPack, a program created to infect websites, hackers can make a profit of between 21,000 and $ 847,000 in just one month, Martinez said.
Around 6,000 people are expected to attend the Campus Party, which brings together participants from around the world to share ideas, experiences and all kinds of activities related to computers, communications and new technologies.
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