Hijacking Facebook Credentials by Ramnit

The Ramnit Virus, which infects Windows executable and HTML files, spreads through removable media and was first detected more than 18 months ago.

The Ramnit Virus use the tactics from the Zeus financial malware platform, which was discovered around 2007, and which has the ability to inject HTML code into a web browser to bypass two-factor authentication and transaction signing systems used by financial institutions to protect online banking sessions.

Zeus was first identified in 2007 and is known to have affected millions of computers.

Using the combination of its previous virus infecting technique and the technique used by the Zeus worm, Ramnit has developed into a full blown malware capable of causing financial loss to the infected user.

As per the data available with us nearly 45,000 Facebook credentials are compromised by the Ramnit Virus, possibly as a way to gain access to other computer systems, such as financial systems and the corporate enterprise.

The interesting thing about this malware is that now malware writers are reverse engineering the other malwares having the complicated parts and using these techniques for rewriting and creating a new hybrid malware.

Creating a hybrid malware is far easier than writing a completely new code from scratch, particularly if it is possible to take the most dangerous pieces of a trojan and hack it onto another destructive virus.

While using Facebook it is always advisable to avoid clicking on strange links even if it is from a known user.
And as a first step of defense you must keep on changing your Facebook password regularly.

Since the malware also steals sensitive information such as saved FTP credentials and browser cookies, among other threats, it is always better to keep personal login credentials separate from those that are used in the workplace.

And if necessary, avoid using Facebook in the workplace altogether.

Ranjeet Menon