US attacks Iran and Saudi Arabia? Malware spreads via Facebook status updates

Beware of malware lurking on news websites claiming to containing breaking news stories.

Naked Security has seen a worrying number of Facebook users posting the same status messages today, claiming that the United States has attacked Iran and Saudi Arabia in a move heralding the beginning of World War 3.

Well, that would certainly get your attention, wouldn’t it?

A typical status message looks like the following:

U.S. Attacks Iran and Saudia Arabia. F**k :-( [LINK] The Begin of World War 3?

If you visit the link mentioned in the status update, you are taken to a fake CNN news webpage which claims to contain video footage of conflict.

However, clicking on the video thumbnail prompts the webpage to ask you to install an update to Adobe Flash.

Of course, it’s not a real Flash update, but malware instead. Remember, you should only ever download a Flash update from the genuine Adobe website.

The malware – which Sophos detects as…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.