Facebook Valentine’s Theme Leads to Malware

Another holiday is approaching, this time one that causes the prices of roses to quadruple. That’s right, Valentine’s Day. And just like you can count on getting ripped off in the brick and mortar stores you can also bet that new threats appear online to take advantage of special occasions.

Trend Micro has come across a new attack that takes advantage of Valentine’s Day. All you need to do is watch out for a post on someone’s wall inviting you to install a Valentine’s theme on your Facebook profile. So far this attack only works on Google Chrome or Firefox. That’s right; this is one case where using Internet Explorer is the safer bet!

According to Trend: “Clicking the Install button on the page will prompt the download of the malicious file, FacebookChrome.crx which Trend Micro detects as TROJ_FOOKBACE.A. When executed, TROJ_FOOKBACE.A executes a script that is capable of displaying ads from certain websites.”
This browser extension will monitor your browsing activities and redirect you to a page asking you for your mobile number. Users who have Internet Explorer will get the same survey but nothing to download.

Christopher Talampas, fraud analyst at Trend agrees with us at Majorgeeks that this might be the start of cybercriminals targeting other browsers via extensions. While many people spend a lot of time debating what browser is best, we spend time telling people to use a little common sense regardless of their browser choice. Either way, this is an area to watch.