Sorry to have to do this but I can’t let the inaccurate
subject line of the email, or the inaccurate
description of the link
provided, misrepresent the news story, or be a source of
misinformation.
The inaccuracy is in saying “Facebook can infect...” (original
subject line)
and
“viruses and malware are now infecting pc's
from Facebook” (description above the link to the story)
From the story:
1) a hacker commandeered her Facebook account.
Using a common malware tactic, ( this line
is irrelevant )
2) the hacker sent a message to all of her friends with a link
to the site homeincomenow3.com,
operated by “Zhang Lei” in Beijing, China.
------------------------------
My analysis:
a) Facebook didn’t infect anything. This is a
fact.
b) Just receiving the message from the hacker, on ones
Facebook message system,
is not enough to infect anyone. ... this is a
fact.
c) Clicking on the link send by the hacker to go to the site
homeincomenow3.com doesn’t guarantee
an infection, but it opens one to the
possibility, *IF* that is what the site is designed to do.
------------------------------
From the point of clicking on the link, ones chance of
infection are relative, to the browser being used,
and the security programs being used on the PC doing the
clicking, and if there is any malicious code
being ‘pushed’ by the site in
question.
And the question as to whether there is any infection
available at all, in this instance, is still not clear.
------------------------------
My attempt to become infected:
I just went to homeincomenow3.com and it
*appears* to be a page at CNBC.com
See attached picture if you’re curious. It is totally safe to
look at the screen capture.
The site obviously can see my IP address and custom load a
page aimed at a Pgh. resident ... so ?
No big deal. This is how it’s done in many
instances.
Is there an infection?
My security didn’t flag anything or grab any *critters* and
toss them in the vault when the site loaded in my browser.
------------------------------
Check for problems after:
I just did a full scan with AVG and MalwareBytes and I’m
seemingly clean.
AVG did detect something ‘questionable’ in my temporary
internet cache’ and asked,
and I told AVG to delete it.
... reboot and rescan with both, just to be sure ... Totally
clean. Nothing found.
I was using the current version of Firefox to visit the site
in question.