If, by chance, you’ve received a message from a “friend” in the last few days saying that you’ve been caught on tape, it’s not true. Unless you’re Paris Hilton.

But no, she’s been tossing a dwarf. Okay, not really, but those are just two of the scams Facebook and MySpace users have been hit with recently.

The malicious software attempts to lure users in with messages ranging from “You’ve been catched on hidden cam” to the one about Hilton tossing a dwarf on the street. The messages contain a link that takes unsuspecting users to a Web page that looks like YouTube. There the page tells visitors that to view the video, they need to click on another link to download and install updated software. Those who fall for the scam are actually installing malicious software.

The worm, called Koobface, turns compromised computers into “zombie” machines that can be used in other types of online attacks. The malicious software may also include keylogger software, which can record a computer user’s keystrokes — and potentially grab passwords when they are entered on a computer.

Alexander Gostev, senior virus analyst at computer security firm Kaspersky Lab, said in a statement that this type of attack could be a successful one for hackers. “Users are very trusting of messages left by ‘friends’ on social networking sites. So the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high,” he said.

Facebook has also been alerting users to a hoax message claiming that the site is overpopulated and that some accounts soon will be deleted.

Facebook’s security page offers a few common-sense suggestions for those worried about security. (“If a link or a message seems weird, don’t click on it,” is one tip.) The company is still investigating the malware attack, according to a spokesman.

According to research firm Cloudmark, users of social networking sites are reporting a rise in spam. An average of 64 spam attacks have been reported over the last year, and 37 percent of users have noticed an increase in the last six months in unwanted messages.

Facebook has blocked links between its social networking site and malware-infested Web sites to where malicious hackers have been trying to lure Facebook members.

“We’ve identified and blocked the ability to link to the malicious websites from anywhere on Facebook. Less than .002 percent of people on Facebook have been affected, all of whom we notified and suggested steps to remove the malware,” wrote Max Kelly, Facebook’s head of security, in a blog post early Friday.

Security company Sophos warned on Thursday about the attack, in which malicious hackers were targeting unsuspecting Facebook users via postings on the site’s Wall feature.

The Wall, a core component of Facebook profile pages, is used by members to leave each other messages. Impersonating members’ friends, malicious hackers posted messages urging users to click on a link to view a video on a Web site they falsely said was hosted by Google.

However, the link took users to a rogue Web page where they were told to download a new version of Adobe’s Flash player in order to view the video. If users authorized the download, the site would install a Trojan horse, Troj/Dloadr-BPL, that funneled other malicious code detected as Troj/Agent-HJX into their PCs.

Then, an image of a court jester sticking his tongue out would appear, making it seem to Facebook members like an innocent practical joke by a friend. In fact, at that point, the PC had been seriously compromised and put in the control of malicious hackers for sending spam, distributing malware and performing other harmful actions, according to Sophos.

In its alert, the security company also addressed business and IT managers, saying that malware attacks via social networks are on the rise and that companies need to establish policies for employee use of these sites from the office.

If companies decide to allow employees to use Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other sites, they should consider beefing up their security wares with, for example, devices that monitor Web traffic and scan software downloads authorized by end users, according to Sophos.

In his blog posting, Kelly asks Facebook members, of which there are about 80 million active ones, to report any spam messages they receive or postings they see, as well as any members who post threatening or inappropriate messages.

“The more reports we get, the easier it is for us to respond decisively,” he wrote.

Another important tip: Never share a Facebook password, not even with someone purporting to be from the company.

“No Facebook employee will ever ask for it, and no one else should know it. If you are ever prompted to log in to Facebook, make sure it’s from a legitimate Facebook web address. If something looks or feels off, go directly to www.facebook.com to log in,” Kelly wrote.

The prompt to download an upgraded Flash player is apparently becoming popular with malicious hackers. This week, Adobe posted its own alert warning people not to fall for this trick. Apparently, the bogus Flash message is part of other malware attacks that use microblogging site Twitter and other social sites.

Last week, security company Kaspersky Lab warned of new worms targeting MySpace and Facebook users via automatically generated comments and messages to those on their lists of friends.

The Google Friend Connect service would allow any Web site to have social networking features. This would allow users to go on a different Web site, and access their photos, profile, blogs, etc and update them accordingly.

Facebook is apparently not up for this idea at all though as they do not want Facebook users to interact with Google Friend Connect it seems.

Facebook engineer Charlie Cheever wrote in a blog post that “We’ve found that Google Friend Connect redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge, which doesn’t respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service.”

Google has argued that it is not a privacy issue at all, as all Google Friend Connect does is give users full control over their data.

We will have to wait and see how this turns out, but it is clear and apparent that Facebook is not in the mood to connect with Google in any way as of right now.

A post on Gawker yielded a moderate wave of panic across the Web when it asserted that by typing the “down” arrow into Facebook’s search box, you could see a list of the five people who view your profile the most: Not quite. It was more likely a list of five people whose profiles a user visits frequently, or at least something along those lines. Some users promptly nicknamed it the “stalker list.”

Even more curious: Facebook pulled the feature within hours of the Gawker post going up.

“Facebook tries to surface the people we think are most important to users to make it easier and faster for them to navigate the site and find what they are looking for,” a statement from Facebook issued on Tuesday read. “The search drop down is not a list of those that have searched for the user. It is also not a list of people whose profile the user has viewed the most or who have viewed the user’s profile the most. To avoid any confusion, this will no longer appear.

“The agreement marks another watershed step toward social networking safety, protecting kids from online predators and inappropriate content,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who announced the agreement Thursday with his counterparts in other states.

Officials from Washington, D.C., and 49 states have signed on.

Facebook, which has more than 70 million active users worldwide, already has enacted many of the changes and others are in the works, its officials said Thursday.

“Building a safe and trusted online experience has been part of Facebook from its outset,” said Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer. “The attorneys general have shown great leadership in helping to address the critical issue of Internet safety, and we commend them for continuing to set high standards for all players in the online arena.”

Texas did not endorse the agreement or a similar one reached in January among the other states, the District of Columbia and MySpace, the world’s largest online social network with 200 million users worldwide.

Texas officials say they want the sites to work faster on verifying users’ ages and identities.

The attorneys general have been negotiating for months with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook.

“Social networks that encourage kids to come to their sites have a responsibility to keep those kids safe,” North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said. “We’ve now gotten the two largest social networking sites to agree to take significant steps to protect children from predators and pornography.”

MySpace, Facebook and other online networks have created a new venue where sexual predators could lie about their age to lure young victims to chat, share images and sometimes meet in person, law enforcement officials said.

The networks also have empowered cyberbullies, who have sent threatening and anonymous messages to classmates, acquaintances and other users.

John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, said research shows online bullies are far more common than sexual predators.

“It’s very rare for an adult to meet a child on a social network and to do them harm, although the ones that do occur get a huge amount of attention, and they are terrible,” he said.

Online bullying, whether through instant-message programs or social networks, is on the rise, he said.

The issue has gained national attention after recent high-profile cases, including the 2006 suicide of a 13-year-old Missouri girl who was victimized by an Internet ruse. Megan Meier hanged herself after receiving nasty online comments from a MySpace friend who turned out to be fictional, invented by two acquaintances and the mother of one of those girls.

Other children have been the subjects of harassment campaigns, including whole sites set up to deride them.

“What’s going on online is not much different than bullying on the playground,” Palfrey said. “It just happens to be playing out in public spaces where kids are spending a lot of time online.”

Facebook and MySpace let users block online bullies and others from contacting them. They also can conceal their “online now” status and use privacy controls to limit who can view their images and other measures.

Among other measures, Facebook agrees to:

_ Ensure companies offering services on its site comply with its safety and privacy guidelines.

_ Keep tobacco and alcohol ads from users too young to purchase those products.

_ Remove groups whose comments or images suggest they may involve incest, pedophilia, bullying or other inappropriate content.

_ Participate in the Harvard-based task force set up in January under the national agreement with MySpace. It includes scholars, a prosecutor, businesses, state officials and child safety advocates.

_ Send warning messages when a child is in danger of giving personal information to an adult.

_ Review users’ profiles when they ask to change their age, ensuring the update is legitimate and not intended to let adults masquerade as children.

The protections included in the MySpace and Facebook pacts could be expanded to smaller services such as Friendster and Bebo, Blumenthal said.

“We’re entering a new era in social networking safety,” Blumenthal said. “This agreement is open-ended in envisioning advances in technology that will permit even stronger steps in the future toward protecting kids’ safety.”

Facebook is generally considered to be among the safest of social networks in terms of sharing personal media, mainly because of the increasing number of privacy options that are available to users. While security breaches are common enough to know that there’s an inherent risk in sharing personal information across social networks (and yes, email too), a recent loophole in Facebook’s photo albums is quick to remind us that every once in a while, bad things happen.

After releasing new security options for user privacy, Facebook’s loophole was unearthed by Vancouver computer technician Byron Ng, reports the Associated Press. What he found was a way to pull up photos from users on Facebook, even if the photos had been marked as restricted to certain users only. What’s more, is the accessible photos from these users could come from strangers on the site, meaning the loophole allowed for Ng to view images from users that he’s not friends with on Facebook.

This security breach was confirmed by an AP reporter, who was even able to view photos from Mark Zuckerberg’s account, placed on Facebook in November, 2005. Ng was also able to view private photos of Paris Hilton at the Emmy Awards, and her brother Nicholas drinking beer with friends. Facebook has since resolved the security breach, and there won’t likely be any lawsuits as a result (we know how Paris feels about her images being shared on the Web). But even if you’re not Paris Hilton, keep this particular security breach in mind when uploading naughty or compromising images of yourself, and your friends too!

 Source: Mashable