A new variant of the Dorkbot malware infects Facebook users worldwide, spreading from one friend to another through the social network’s internal chat. The Bitdefender Labs have caught and blocked the worm, which is capable of spying on users’ browsing activities and stealing their personal details. The malware family mainly circulates in the US, India, Portugal, the UK, Germany, Turkey and Romania. The inf...

Almost a quarter of scams on Facebook offer users a bogus method to see who has viewed their profile, according to a study by antivirus software creator Bitdefender.   Based on six months of research, the study also showed a firm desire among users to see Rihanna sex tapes. Used in almost one in five Facebook scams, this empty promise tricks users into giving away private data and installing malware.   “Sca...

A Facebook group that offered fraud ‘services’ was recently shut down after the social network found its members published credit card details, networks of hacked computers and other illegal information, according to The Guardian. The group identified by RSA security researchers included a list of stolen identities apparently obtained by a member. The fake profile, launched on 28 February, gathered 163 “lik...

The advent of social networking did not change only the way people interact with each other, but also opened new challenges to authenticating a rich environment of applications to interact with the account. Since logging into an application with your social network’s credentials is like handing your house keys to people you barely know, the Open Authorization standard has become increasingly popular. It int...

A new Facebook page is attempting to trick the curly-haired masses on the world’s most popular social site with an offer of free hair straighteners, according to Hoax Slayer. The scammers apparently aim to gather enough likes and shares so they can sell the page to other scammers, without ever straightening a single curly hair. “We have got 569 GHD Hair straighteners that can't be sold because they have bee...

Facebook users are sharing more personal information even as privacy concerns grow, according to the Carnegie Mellon University. A seven-year study has found evidence that the amount of information people publish on the social network changed over time, depending on the features Facebook introduced. From 2005 to 2009, users were more careful with privacy settings, progressively decreasing the amount of pers...

A wave of e-mails disguised as Facebook messages alleging that “Henry,” “Isabella” and “Luke” commented on your photo is the latest in a line of spam and scams to prey on Facebook fans. The spam e-mails seek to pique users’ curiosity only to redirect them to malicious and phishing websites that could steal their identity, their money and install malware on their computers. The Bitdefender Labs caught the ne...

Bitdefender security researchers recommend all employees to refrain from revealing the name of the company they are working for and minimize data sharing on social networking platforms. This information will do them and their companies more harm than good. And nowhere is this recommendation more urgent than in the United States – the country with both the highest profile hacking targets and the most lax cit...

Beware of a new sex tape scam spreading on Facebook featuring US singer Taylor Swift. Thousands of users, particularly curious men, have already shared the scam with friends, so the danger is increasing steadily. The phony sex tape featuring Taylor Swift leads to a link that Bitdefender blocks as a fraud attempt. Cyber-criminals have crafted the scam so that it registers users’ IP addresses and shows a mess...

The increasing number of kids using social media platforms and Android devices makes them vulnerable to online predators, cyber-bullying, identity theft and malware. Parents consider social networks the main danger to their children on the Internet. According to Bitdefender statistics, 54 percent of websites monitored or blocked by parents are social networks. “On social media, the main threats children fac...