# Negril.com Message Board Forums > Technical Issues >  Malware attack targeting Facebook users affects 10,000 victims in 2 days

## Rob

A malware attack specifically targeting Facebook users has been uncovered by security researchers, which affected around 10,000 users in just two days. Between 24 and 27 June, thousands of Facebook users received messages from a "friend", claiming to have mentioned them on Facebook. The message was in reality, issued by hackers to launch a two-stage malware attack. For more please click on the link below:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/facebook-us...ews&yptr=yahoo

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## Comforts of Home Nursing

This last season was also an attack on many visitors (multiple times sometimes) as well as we people that live in Negril with the creating of fake facebook accounts under your name.  I took it to the Resort board meeting and made a police report on my incident. I was told by facebook investigators to let people know to check their names (search) monthly because it was of high incidence in Negril. After creating a fake account they would reach out to your friends and have inappropriate conversations, acting like you. This sent someone home early, because a man stopped them on street saying they were chatting and were to meet, when they didn't have the conversation!!   Others took the conversations and showed others, but soon found out it wasn't them! Sad because this caused a lot of bad feeling .....social media isn't all its cracked up to be

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## marco

one more reason to go Mac!

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## Rob

> one more reason to go Mac!


macs are not immune if you are using the Chrome browser...

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## marco

The Facebook malware mainly targeted users with Windows-based machines, but also those using Windows OS phones could have been at risk too. Android and iOS users were not impacted since the Facebook malware doesn’t user libraries compatible with these mobile OSs.

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## marco

The Facebook malware mainly targeted users with Windows-based machines, but also those using Windows OS phones could have been at risk too. Android and iOS users were not impacted since the Facebook malware doesn’t user libraries compatible with these mobile OSs.

I have been using macs for five years now and never have had an issue.....and the fact is Macs are far more immune from viruses thanPC's.....I havenever used any anti virus software

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## Rob

> The Facebook malware mainly targeted users with Windows-based machines, but also those using Windows OS phones could have been at risk too. Android and iOS users were not impacted since the Facebook malware doesnt user libraries compatible with these mobile OSs.
> 
> I have been using macs for five years now and never have had an issue.....and the fact is Macs are far more immune from viruses thanPC's.....I havenever used any anti virus software


Marco,

The actual quote from the Kaspersky Lab article about the FB attack was:

"People using Windows-based computers to access Facebook were at the *greatest risk*, while those using Windows OS phones could possibly have been at some risk.  Users of Android and iOS mobile devices were immune since the malware used libraries which are not compatible with these mobile operating systems."

The reason for this "greatest risk" is that more Windows machines use Chrome than do Macs. 

But if you think you dont have to worry about viruses, think again. The obviously biased "MacWorld" magazine ran an article earlier this year in May. Their opening lines were "Do Macs get viruses? Do Macs need antivirus software? The short answers are yes, and yes."

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac...mware-3454926/

In February of this year, I posted that "ransomware" was going to be more in the news this year. According to the above article, one month later, "March 2016 saw the appearance of the first ever piece of Mac ransomware, distributed along with a version of a piece of legitimate software".

So please become aware that Macs are not immune. This has been in the news since the first major Mac viruses hit in 2010/2011. There were small infections before that time, but very limited in numbers as the number of Macs were limited.  

As the Apple website states:

"As a Mac user you don't have to live in fear that your computer is going to be infected every time you install an application, read email, or visit a web page. But neither should you have the false idea that you will always be safe, no matter what you do."

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## Rob

The reason for the original post was to inform our viewers of this latest FB scam. 

As many of you are aware, there has been an increase in the number of fake FB accounts.

Please be careful on FB, and before you re-friend someone, check your existing friends list to see if they are already on your existing list.

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## marco

actually Rob, if one has been updating their OS all along, n need t install virus protection. Also, viruses written for PC's as this one obviously was does not affect Macs. The conclusion therefore is that one is far less likely to have your computer infected by a Mac

Whether those abilities are present in the version of OS X that you are running will likely depend on how old your Mac is and whether you’ve been upgrading the operating system along the way (if you haven’t, you really should you know) – malware detection was introduced with OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

It operates in a way that many of you will know to be very similar to the antivirus programs that Windows users rely upon so heavily, quarantining content downloaded from the internet, using Code Signing certificates to verify the legitimacy of that content, and regularly downloading security updates that refresh a database of known threats targeting the Mac’s operating system.

Whenever you attempt to open files downloaded by a quarantine-aware application (some examples of which are Safari, Messages and Mail), you will be presented with a dialog box which will remind you what you are opening, where you downloaded it from, and at what time. If everything checks out you can continue to open it, otherwise you can cancel it.

Should you try and open a file that is known to be malicious, OS X from Snow Leopard onward will interrupt you with an alert box which will remind you what file you are trying to open, where you downloaded it from and at what time, along with a description of the issue it presents.

If the alert says the file is malware and will damage your computer you should, of course, move it to trash or, if it is a disk image, eject it.

Assuming you pay heed to those warnings and don’t open malicious files your Mac should stay virus free.



http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/se...ained-3418367/
One more:

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## Rob

Hmmmmm.... sounds an awfully lot like making sure your Windows and antivirus are up to date. If all Windows users  followed that same strategy, they would remain virus free as well.

And although I am fully aware of both Mac and Windows updates, the average user is not. No operating system is perfect,. There is no need to play the "my OS is better than your OS" game here". The purpose of my original post was to inform our viewers of a situation that may be effecting them now.

But thanks for explaining that Macs are only safe if you follow the same strategy as Windows users should.

The next Mac update will be interesting...

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## marco

you have misread or misinterpreted the post Rob...the bottom line is the macs are far far less susceptible to Viruses and if you have the most recent OS the recommendation is that you do not need to install a virus...

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## Rob

Marco,

Believe what you want. You are entitled. But did you read the article you linked? Please do not mislead people. 

In the PCAdvisor article that you linked, the actual *bottom lines* are:

"Do Macs need antivirus: the verdict

I'd say that if you are using your Mac at home, *mostly for non business purposes*, you can close this article and continue to operate without security software. *Yes, it is a risk*. But using the internet is a risk, and in my considered view running a Mac without AV is *a worthwhile calculated risk*.

*There are exceptions*, however. If you are *running a business* with a fleet of Macs, or a network of both Macs and Windows PCs, I'd suggest getting in some protection. It's a belt and braces approach that may not be necessary, but *if you have a lot to lose it's a small price to pay for peace of mind*.

You may also *consider using antivirus on your Mac if for some reason you could be targeted individually* - if you have access to sensitive or high-value data, for instance. If you do choose to buy antivirus for your Mac, take a look at the reviews roundup put together by our colleagues on Macworld: Best Mac antivirus software."

So, the author of the article states it is a "worthwhile calculated risk" if you have nothing of importance to lose. But how many of us who use a computer of any kind have nothing of importance to lose on that machine?

And Macs are less likely to be targets of viruses, because virus programmers go after the most attractive market to attack. Macs currently have a worldwide market of 4.95% of all desktop/laptop computers. Windows has a market share of 88.43%. If a virus programmer infected ALL of the Macs worldwide, they would infect less than 5% of all desktop/laptops. 

Macs are currently far, far less susceptible to viruses because there are far, far less of them for virus programmers to attack. But even this does not make them immune. The author points this out by stating "the Mac market share in wealthy western countries is around 20-30 percent. When you consider that Macs are expensive, and so their owners tend to be wealthier than the average PC users, they start to look like an attractive target. I'm not scare-mongering - the threat is not there in any significant scale. But someday it could be, and that may make AV (antivirus) a worthwhile investment." 

And if Macs dont need antivirus software, why does MacWorld have reviews for the "best" Mac antivirus software?

The true bottom line is no computer operating system is immune, and if you have something to lose, protect it as best as possible.

This is getting tiresome and completely off topic. 

Marco, this is not some battle for anyone to win, but should be a thread to help people with the problem that was discovered that they can fix with an upgrade to Chrome. Please stop with the "my OS is better than yours" nonsense.

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## marco

I agree Rob....but it seems that you just have to have the last word......

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## Rob

The point of the original post was to help our viewers. The FB malware attacked the computer by use of a Chrome extension. Any computer (not an Android or iOS - both phones and tablets) running Chrome was vulnerable because Chrome gave it permission to install the malware extension. That includes Windows, Macs and Linux based machines as well. 

Chrome was chosen as it is one of the most popular browsers in the world and is running on many millions of machines, mainly on Windows. Google has now released a Chrome update. Please install it asap if you use Chrome. 

To find the update, click on the "hamburger" menu on the far right of the Chrome address bar line (all the way to right, the three lines on top of each other) and choose Help. Then select "About Google Chrome" and it should let you know if an update is available. If it is, UPDATE it! The Chrome browser will ask you to relaunch it when it is done. That's it. 

FB also did an internal update to prevent this same exploit from happening again. But that is only for this particular exploit. 

There will be others in the future, of that you can be sure. That is the nature of hacking/malware/scams on the Internet today, as it has been since computers were first connected by the use of phones. It was true back when I was first "online" in 1977 in high school. Man, did we get into trouble back then... (grin)

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## marco

I rest my case  :Smile: 

and just to put things in perspective..this is all I originally wrote:"one more reason to go Mac"

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## Tim

Marco, seems to me you need to have the last word.  Just saying.

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## Summer

> macs are not immune if you are using the Chrome browser...


Thank you Rob for stating this.

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## Summer

> Marco, seems to me you need to have the last word.  Just saying.


seems that way to me too...lol

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## Accompong

> Thank you Rob for stating this.


*Ditto that thank you here.  Just upgraded and tightened my security settings.




			
				seems that way to me too...lol
			
		

Three...

*

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