Koob-Face Coming Round Again

Alert your mob bosses and bring your farm animals into the stable. Koob-face is rearing it's ugly head again and targeting Facebook and Twitter users.

Once again hackers are using messages on Facebook and Twitter to lure would-be victims to click on a link. They promise wealth, fame, fortune, the ability to help someone in trouble, and a myriad of other things to get you to click. One of the most recent scams is to make messages look like they are coming from a friend in trouble away from home. They request money be sent by wire. This scam hurts your friends as well as your credibility.

 Also, they want you to click on a link to download a special program for viewing their content. This is really spyware. It infects your computer and then it sends the same deceptive message to all your Facebook friends.

  Jeff Debrosse, a computer security specialist says, "Just one person getting an infection on a social networking site actually opens the door to thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, or millions getting infected".

"Koob-face" has been around for a while, but hackers are once again trying to lure gullable Facebook users to give up their personal information with new tricks, according to McAfee.

E-mails with a subject line of "Facebook Password Reset Confirmation! Customer Support" are sent saying that people's passwords on their Facebook accounts have been reset and that they should log in to a site to get their new credentials.  But if the attachment is opened, it downloads several types of malicious software, including a program that steals passwords, McAfee said.

You can keep your computer secure by always checking out a link before clicking it (See- "Check Out The Links For Safety"), always use an up-to-date browser, which may recognize the newest threats, and by keeping your anti-virus software up to date.


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Related Articles

• Password-stealing virus targets Facebook users (msnbc.msn.com)
• Malicious Facebook ad redirects to fake antivirus software (infoworld.com)
• WARNING: Farm Town Serves Malware Ads to Facebook Users (mashable.com)

5 Top Twitter Tools

Twitter applications, twitter apps, can be called by different names. They are sometimes known as "twitter tools". By whatever the name they are called, they are websites which have built-in scripts that complement Twitter. As our social media has become more real-time, it has become easier to maintain a web presence using additional tools for our favorite media site.

I don’tknow about you, but I am constantly looking for tools to use for my online presence. This is not an easy task. Not only do you need to find worthwhile applications, but also be positive that they are legit and safe for use. There are a lot of supposed tools available that ask for your twitter account and password. I don’t find this something I am willing to give out to any fly by night URL or application. Safety is a major concern for me. That is why I have checked each of these tools and have not recommended others that may, or may not, compromise your Twitter account.

1. HootSuite - Is a web based twitter management tool. It allows management of multiple twitter accounts using your web browser. I like the tabs, and wish that twitter

would change their design to something like this.

2. Twittercounter - Is a really nice stat tool for checking

the progress of your follower count, friends, and updates. It will predict future growth, show daily and average growth and allow you to compare up to three twitter accounts.

3. Twackle - Finds twitter messages about your favorite

sports, leagues, teams, players and events. Posting to twackle shows up on twitter and vice versa. It's a cool way to keep up with your favorite sports. They are "your sportsbar in the twittersphere".

4. Twibes - Providing community to your twitter life. A twibe is a group of Twitter users interested in a common topic who would like to be able to communicate with each other. Find or create a twibe group and communic

ate between members. Works well for a group to stay in-touch throughout the day, or relay information to each other.

5. Tweetmeme- Tracks the hottest links on twitter

and allows you to follow them in real time. You can also see videos, pictures and the news that has been twitted about. Plenty of options, and ability to search topics or channels.

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Using Twitter to Keep a Diary

I have questioned whether Twitter could be a valuable tool beyond marketing, and now I have found an answer. I found the article referenced below about using it for a pain log, but it occurred to me that this idea could be pushed for any time you want to keep a running log of events in your life.

Lisa Copen Writes for "Chronic Illness and Pain Support", "Now is the time for those of us who have a chronic illness to let Twitter worked for us!"

With a private account on the social networking tool, Twitter is perfect for chronic pain sufferers to keep a pain log or daily diary. Lisa gives 5 ideas for using Twitter as a logging or diary tool.

1. Create a private account just for your pain log.

2. You can send posts of 140 characters or less from your cell phone as well as computer.

3. Start by sending posts about anything you want or answer the question, "What did you do today?".

4. Print out your posts before your next doctors appointment and highlight any changes in pattern or pain.

5. Use a program on your computer to manage more than one account, so that you can keep personal and non-personal Twitter accounts.

These ideas make it much easier to keep my daily diary. It is sometimes very difficult to find the time each day to write things down, but Twitting is something I already do. Maybe it is something you may want to do now, as well.

14 Mac Only Twitter Applications

Being a Mac geek, I'm always looking for better, newer applications to fill up my 250GB hard drive. I found this information on "Blog On a Stick". Take the time to read the entire article, so that you can decide which application fits your needs. I downloaded them all, and am currently using Nambu. So far, I really like it. It does allow multiple twitter clients, so if you are like me, with a personal account and a commercial account it will do the job.

Thomas at TwisterMC.com says,
"There are no shortage of Twitter applications out there. Each client seems to have a slightly different feature set too. I’ve tried a lot of them and below is a list of good Twitter applications that have been built for the Mac. No Adobe Air suggestions here, and most are available only on the Mac."

Enjoy the apps and tell someone if you find one that really gets you where you compute.

-- Andy

Twitter Talk. Who's Talking About You?

Do you wonder if the “Twitterverse” is talking about you, your company, your blog, etc? Whether the twitterbuzz is positive or negative, it’s can be in your best interests to know all about it.
And now you can: BackTweets finds twitter conversations related to any URL you specify.
But there’s an even better way to use it.

To use BackTweets, just copy and paste any URL. This can be your site’s home page, an individual blog post, or whatever. The site then returns all conversations (”tweets”) that include that URL. Very cool.

Even handier: Add this BackTweets bookmarklet to your browser. (Specifically, drag the preceding link to your favorites sidebar, links toolbar, or wherever you manage your bookmarks.)

Then, one click of the bookmarklet activates BackTweets for whatever page you’re currently viewing. If you want some instant “tweet-back” (feedback- Twitter style) on a blog post, news item, product page, etc., it’s now just a matter of clicking on your bookmark.

Using Twitter to Track Packages

Did you know that you are able to track your packages using Twitter? It seams there is nothing you can't do with a little ingenuity. In order to track packages, follow "TrackThis" on Twitter.

TrackThis is a bot created for tracking your packages. Send a Direct Message with your Airway Bill Number, to the bot and you’ll be notified each time your package changes location.

This works with FedEx, UPS, DHL and USPS.

Happy Tracking!


-- Andy