A new worm is spreading via Facebook and MySpace, turning victims' computers into zombies on a botnet, Kaspersky Lab said on Friday.
Infected machines are propagating the worm by sending messages via the social networks to friends in the network.
The messages look like they contain links to video clips. When clicked on they prompt the recipient to download an executable file that purports to be the latest version of Flash Player. Instead, it is the worm itself, infecting yet another victim.
When infected machines log onto the social networks the next time their computers automatically send the malicious messages out to new victims grabbed from the friend list, said Ryan Naraine, security evangelist at Kaspersky.
"We've seen these types of worms before, typically around MySpace," he said. "People are more trusting of things they receive from a friend", and many people do not recognize that what they are downloading is not a legitimate Flash Player file, but a malicious program.
Naraine repeated the refrain that security professionals have been spreading for years: be careful about downloading anything to your computer, even if it appears to come from a friend; and be diligent about applying security patches to your computer.
This article was first published as a blog on CNET News.com.
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