The Inquirer tells us that Anonymous will rein in Facebook ‘Fawkes Virus’, an assertion based on a clip made available on Youtube, where a robotic voice tells us that the malware is sophisticated worm, replicates over the network, gains access to the victim’s Facebook account via a Facebook page, broadcasts malicious links and opens up the victim’s system to total control of the system. The “virus” – if it exists – appears to be modelled on Koobface (or at any rate the description is..) but with added bot functionality (bot-ulism?).
According to the clip Anonymous Central, “did not expect the intensity in which it would spread.” The problem with that assertion is that no-one else seems to have noticed this particular fastburner, though BitDefender have picked up a Bifrose variant that it says has some of the characteristics described in the clip.
If it’s been under test since July and spreading like wildfire, you would think that someone (preferably the security industry) would have some inkling by now. Hm. Wasn’t it July when someone using the handle AnonOp, allegedly to the displeasure of “real” Anonymous, announced that Facebook would be taken down on November 5th?
Whatever. It appears that Anonymous, or somebody going by that handle, will be using the worm just as soon as they manage to get control back to attack corruption and their enemies. Interesting paradigm of expert programming there, gents…
Old Mac
Taking a break from Mac Virus
Check Chain Mail and Hoaxes 
I’ve been after this rumor for hours and it sure looks like Bitdefender is scamvertising. This didn’t appear until 3 days ago, right before Bitdefender started yammering all over Facebook about it.
By: Virtual TWiT on November 14, 2011
at 6:12 pm
Apart from the fact that this sounds like that tired old “the AV companies write the viruses” canard, I really don’t see this. BitDefender is a sound and ethical company that does some good research. If they had set it up (and I don’t believe it for a moment), they’d surely have made sure there was a closer match between their malware sample and the Anonymous claim, and they could have got it much more exposure by playing the media. Not that AV companies haven’t been pretty close to the line on occasion: I just don’t see this as one of those occasions.
By: David Harley on November 14, 2011
at 6:37 pm