Facebook Timeline poses threat to over 2 million users in the UAE

ESET Middle East, the leader in proactive protection against cyber-threats announced that the Facebook Timeline is prone to an alarming number of cyber-threats. Over 2 million facebook users in the UAE could possibly be vulnerable to attacks, scamsters/ click-jackers.

Facebook’s new ‘Timeline’ feature replaces the traditional profile page, subsequently allowing a growing number of Timeline-related scams and malicious campaigns offering phony applications to allegedly disable the Timeline.

The fake pages/ apps urges users to click on ‘Like’ buttons in order to activate a feature that allows them to enable or disable the Timeline whenever they want on their profiles. After the entire process is complete, a message appears saying ‘the Timeline Office will analyze your request.’

“Likes is the most common activity on Facebook, which could possibly dupe facebook users to malicious scams,” according to Aji Joseph, General Manager ESET Middle East.

“Facebook’s new feature TimeLine has caused enough confusion among users; paving way for scamster and click-jackers to offer bogus links on Facebook that promise Timeline removal,” added Aji Joseph.

ESET Middle East advises Facebook users to avoid the temptation to click on links promising to help deactivate, remove, or disable Timeline.

Additionally, every month ESET compiles a statistic based on its Live Grid feature – ESET’s cloud-based malware collection system utilizing data from users of ESET solutions worldwide. Every month for the last several months, removable media malware has topped the stats. INF/Autorun topped the annual statistics (5.84%). Number two was Win32/Conficker (3.69%). The global threat number three Win32/Sality reached a 1.88% infection rate.