Facebook Removes Accounts Used to Infect Thousands With Malware

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Facebook has shut down more than 30 accounts spreading malware through malicious links that purport to be news about the ongoing political situation in Libya. The campaign, ongoing since 2014, has infected tens of thousands of victims with remote access trojans (RATs), according to researchers.
 
The campaign, dubbed “Operation Tripoli,”  took advantage of the political situation in Libya to lure victims into clicking links that claimed to be Libya-related news. The links purported to be information about news like the latest airstrike in the country or the capturing of terrorists, but instead, contained malware. It’s important to note that Facebook itself wasn’t breached – however, the hack points to how social media platforms can be abused to launch malware attacks, researchers said.
 
“Although the set of tools which the attacker utilized is not advanced nor impressive per se, the use of tailored content, legitimate websites and highly active pages with many followers made it much easier to potentially infect thousands of victims,” said Check Point researchers in a Monday analysis of the campaign. “The sensitive material shared in the ‘Dexter Ly’ profile implies that the attacker has managed to infect high profile officials as well.”

The campaign successfully infected tens of thousands of victims mainly from Libya, but also in Europe, the United States and Canada said researchers. Facebook has since shut down the pages and accounts that were distributing the malware as part of the campaign.

SOURCE: https://threatpost.com/facebook-malware-...ks/146149/