Press Releases

AVG Researchers Identify New Social Network Application Threats

Political Hacktivists Deface Facebook Members’ Pages to Make Statement

Amsterdam – June 8, 2010 – AVG Technologies, developers of the world’s most popular free anti-virus software, today announced that it had discovered a new threat to Facebook: “Political Hacktivism,” or the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends. Over the weekend of June 5-6, 2010, AVG researchers noticed that a number of Facebook accounts had seemingly been hacked by Turkish hackers in retaliation for the recent Gaza blockade incident.

AVG researchers first identified the threats, which seem to be take two forms and, researchers note, probably indicates that there are two individuals or groups involved, and it appears they are Turkish hackers. These tools include web site defacements, redirects, denial-of-service attacks, information theft, web site parodies, virtual sit-ins, virtual sabotage, and software development."

“The number of hacked accounts is fairly small, so far lass than fifty, which would indicate that it is not an automated attack, but the number is still increasing, albeit slowly,” said Roger Thompson, AVG Chief Research Officer. “This is the first time, as far as I am aware, that Facebook has been a victim of political hacktivism.”

Thompson continued, “Given that the attack seems to be being run by Turkish hackers, and that Turkish hackers had once claimed a world record for defacing 37k pages in a single day, we should not discount the thought that they might find an automated way to move, and we should be extra vigilant with what we click. Think before you link.”

This hacktivisim on Facebook is another in a continuing string of malicious attacks to the popular social networking site. AVG recognizes the power that social networking brings to our professional and personal lives and does not advocate giving up on the technology altogether. However, AVG does have some recommendations on how to best protect yourself:

• Make sure you practice safe surfing. AVG LinkScanner is a free web tool that can identify threats in real-time and let you know if a page or link is poisoned, before you click.
• If you ever have to install a viewer to watch a video, something is probably not right. Go to the video player application’s official website and download the application there. Never download through a link
• Make sure your anti-virus and security software is up to date. If you don’t have anti-virus software, you can download AVG Free here.

About AVG Technologies

www.avg.com

AVG is a global security software maker protecting more than 110 million consumers and small businesses in 170 countries from the ever-growing incidence of web threats, viruses, spam, cyber-scams and hackers on the Internet. AVG has nearly two decades of experience in combating cyber crime and one of the most advanced laboratories for detecting, pre-empting and combating Web-borne threats from around the world. Its free, downloadable software allows novice users to have basic anti-virus protection and then easily upgrade to greater levels of safety and defense when they are ready. AVG has nearly 6,000 resellers, partners and distributors globally including Amazon.com, CNET, Cisco, Ingram Micro, Play.com, Wal-Mart, and Yahoo!

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