The Majority of Accounts Stolen by ‘Ramnit’ Outdated, Facebook Says

A few days ago we saw how the latest variant of the 2010 Ramnit worm managed to steal around 45,000 Facebook usernames and passwords; but after investigating the matter, the social networking website concluded that most of the data was invalid.

Furthermore, the worm isn’t spreading through Facebook itself, instead it obtains information from the computers of the individuals affected by the virus, ZDnet reports.

“Last week we received from external security researchers a set of user credentials that had been harvested by a piece of malware. Our security experts have reviewed the data, and while the majority of the information was out-of-date, we have initiated remedial steps for all affected users to ensure the security of their accounts,” a Facebook representative said.

“Thus far, we have not seen the virus propagating on Facebook itself, but have begun working with our external partners to add protections to our anti-virus systems to help users secure their devices. People can protect themselves by never clicking on strange links and reporting any suspicious activity they encounter on Facebook.”

While the exact number of usable credential sets remains unknown, Zuckerberg’s company states that more than half of them are invalid or have outdated passwords.

This may be good news, but Facebook customers should be on the lookout for any suspicious emails or links that allegedly point to the social media website.

Although we are presented almost daily with a new Facebook scam that either advertises some shady product, a rogue site, or a piece of malware, it’s clear that some of them record a high rate of success.

Security solutions providers have warned at the end of 2011 that cybercriminals target social media accounts more because they can utilize the trust factor that exists between “friends” to spread their schemes with increased efficiency.