It used a malicious software which:
- fooled banks’ anti-fraud systems
- forging bank statements to hide the thefts.

It also recruited innocent job-seekers as money mules.

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Thousands of web site owners are unaware that their sites are hacked and infected with parasites.

So what you think is your website might not be really yours after all.

One tool to detect the presence of suspicious URLs in hidden frames is by using this tool:

http://www.unmaskparasites.com/

I used this to detect Gumblar, a botnet that infects Web servers and infected Web site visitors for the purposes of installing malcode on PCs that redirects end-user Google searches to fraudulent Web sites.

If you see a comment that goes something like this, DO NOT CLICK ON IT:

seen this really bad blog about you? http://www.jdsense.com/search/redirect.php?f=http://blogs.faecibook.com/sessionid?nglnbskuf

Apparently China based, it will bring you to an authentic-looking FAKE Facebook page that tells you Your Session Has Expired and will require you to login with your email and password.

Its only purpose is to harvest your email address and facebook password, and the creators are writing comments on strangers’ statuses.

So far, the comments have been either “seen this really bad blog about you?” or “I have a 13 year old daughter who is in LOVE with you.”

Apparently, in a few minutes, the message will be deleted.

If you happen to experience this, CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD NOW!!!

Technical info:

It seems the domain was set up on 6th August 2009 under the name Li Wang, registered in Shanghai with email lixing688@gmail.com, and phone/fax no: 86-021-51697771

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And not just the iPhone, phones running Windows Mobile and Google Android Oses are also vulnerable.

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The BBC, 31 Jul 2009

At issue is the security of computerized records on everything from police investigations to potholes as America’s second-largest city considers dumping its in-house computer network for Google e-mail and office programs that are accessed over the Internet.

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This is the latest in a series of attacks on the site.

Facebook said:
(i) it’s now “cleaning up damage”
(ii) it’s blocking compromised accounts.

Modus operandi of attackers:
(i) breaking into accounts of some Facebook members; presumably via common methods like weak password guessing?
(ii) send e-mails to friends of the member asking them to click on links to fake websites, designed to look like the Facebook home page. There, the victims were directed to log back in to the site, where in actual fact they logged into the one controlled by the hackers, hence revealing their passwords.

The fake domains include www.151.im, www.121.im and www.123.im.

As to the objective of the hackers, it’s believed that they wanted to take over a big number of accounts, then use them to send spam selling goods to Facebook members at large.

Source

Security firm McAfee monitored cyberspace since January 2009 and found that 12 million computers have been taken over by criminals.

And compared to last year, the number of zombies has increased by 50%.

The real number is likely to be higher.

The United States has 18% of the world’s infected computers. Second is China with 13%.

SOurce
The BBC

(i) ICT security pros need to work together to fight the now highly organised cyber criminals the world over. Online fraudsters “are not bound by any rules of law” and have control over “massive armies of zombie computers”. No more acting independently: now there’s a need to collaborate, to create a common development process: standards, sharing technologies and integrating technologies and controls into the infrastructure.

(ii) Cyber criminals have infiltrated everything imaginable: from the US power grid to the Pentagon.

(iii) Sophos said a web page is infected every 4.5 seconds & every day more than 20,000 new samples of malware are discovered.

(iv) Symantec said it had blocked 245 million attacks per month in 2008 : that’s 200,000 attacks every 30 minutes, and that 90% of attacks target confidential information

(v) Attackers are changing their approaches, from mass distribution (random attacks) to a few threats being distributed to micro-distribution where there are millions of distinct threats. Meaning, they now target individuals, to try to steal confidential information (medical, financial etc). Hence, anyone can be a victim.

Source
The BBC, 21 April 2009