For the many of us who use Facebook, beware, there is a possible account hack making the rounds.
Several users, including several of my friends, have recently been caught off-guard by strange Status updates and Wall posts, many of them related to weight-loss plans, colon-cleansing products, and other website/product advertisements. These phony updates appear to be posting from the Facebook Mobile site (m.facebook.com), leading some to believe they were submitted via a cellular phone. However, there have been some security holes exploited previously in Facebook’s servers, including account credential phishing — fake or re-directed websites made to appear as if you’re logging into Facebook, while actually collecting and sending your account information to an outside source. Because of this, Facebook’s staff suspect the current hacks may be a result of this scheme, and are recommending all users — affected or not — change their passwords promptly to avoid possibly spreading the attack.
Note that this does not appear to be a localized virus or spyware infection on the user’s machine, but rather an outside source which is accessing your account. Antivirus/antispyware products, while certainly a general requirement, will not protect you from this particular hack; changing your password and using good judgement when clicking on website links and emails, may however help avoid such situations in the future.
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