Facebook unveils Koobface virus perpetrators

Jan 17, 2012, 20:49 GMT

San Francisco - Facebook and a team of allied researchers on Tuesday unmasked the men behind the notorious Koobface virus that hit the social network for two years beginning in 2008.

The virus took over the computers of Facebook users by tricking them into clicking on a link that they thought was from friends, but in reality installed a malicious worm. At its height in 2010 the network included 400,000 to 800,000 compromised PCs worldwide, according to security firm Kaspersky Labs. Victims are often unaware that their machines have been compromised.

Facebook said that it had succeeded in blocking the virus for the past nine months by taking down a command and control server that led back to the ringleaders. Though Facebook did not name the alleged virus masters, a related post by security firm Sophos, and an article in The New York Times exposed them as five Russian men, named Anton Korotchenko, Alexander Koltyshev, Roman Koturbach, Syvatoslav Polinchuk, and Stanislav Avdeik.

The New York Times said the men are living openly in St Petersburg and have even posted photos of their vacations to places such as Monte Carlo, Bali and Turkey on their Facebook pages.