Some Facebook applications lead to Russian attack sites

Poor coding on some Facebook apps lead to websites pushing malware, rogue antivirus.

Security researchers at antivirus vendor AVG Technologies have discovered that faulty coding in some Facebook applications are being targeted by cybercriminals. Roger Thompson, chief research officer of AVG cited several hacked Facebook applications that appear to be pushing Facebook users to Russian-based attack websites that push out malware and rogue antivirus software. In a blog entry, Thompson cited several examples and called the application developers victims, not the perpetrators of the attacks.

Initially, we thought that the applications were deliberately acting as lures, but it now seems to us that they are victims themselves. The difficult part for them will be to find and plug the hole that the DataSnatchers are using to hack the applications.

So far, about eight Facebook applications have been targeted by the cybercriminals. Most of the applications are games. Check out Thompson’s blog entry for the list. He warns that there could be more.