Facebook no longer a safe haven as cybercrime spreads

But ultimately Facebook says its members are responsible for their own security.

“We do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee it,” Facebook says in a warning in a section of the site on the terms and conditions of use, which members might not bother to read. (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php)

“People implicitly trust social networking sites because they don't understand the real threats and dangers. It's like walking down the street and trusting everybody you meet,” said Randy Abrams, a researcher with security software maker ESET.

Amy Benoit, a human resources manager in Oceanside, California, said she may stop using Facebook altogether after she became entangled in a popular scam: A fraudster sent instant messages to a friend saying that Benoit had been attacked in London and needed US$600 to get home.

Yale University last week warned its business school students to be careful when using Facebook after several of them turned in infected laptops.

One of the most insidious threats is Koobface, a virus that takes over PCs when users click on links in spam messages. The virus turned up on MySpace about a year ago, but its unknown authors now focus on spreading it through Facebook, which is struggling to wipe it out.

“Machines that are compromised are at the whim of the attacker,” said McAfee Inc researcher Craig Schmugar.

McAfee, the world's No. 2 security software maker, says Koobface variants almost quadrupled last month to 4,000.

“Because Facebook is a closed system, we have a tremendous advantage over e-mail. Once we detect a spam message, we can delete that message in all inboxes across the site,” said Facebook's Axten.

Axten said the site does not know how many users have been infected by Koobface.

A new website that follows Facebook news, www.fbhive.com, recently identified a vulnerability that made it possible to access any user's private information using a simple hack. The loophole has since been closed.

“We don't have any evidence to suggest that it was ever exploited for malicious purposes,” Axten said.

Hackers even find ways to get into accounts of savvy users like Sandeep Junnarkar, a journalism professor at City University of New York and former tech reporter. Last month he learned his account was hacked as he waited for a flight for Paris. He quickly changed his password before boarding.

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