Facebook, the operator of the most popular social-networking site, has blocked a virus that infected thousands of users’ accounts by presenting itself as a video message. The messages advertised links to videos on Google or YouTube sites, Max Kelly, head of security at Facebook, said in a blog post. Instead, those who clicked on the phony links downloaded malicious software, he said, without elaborating. The virus affected less than 0.002 percent of Facebook’s users, Kelly said. Based on its more than 120 million subscribers, that would amount to more than 2,000 people. Facebook disabled access to the links and is working to shore up security, he said. Users who inadvertently downloaded the virus were presented with an image of a court jester sticking his tongue out and rolling his eyes, U.K.-based security-software maker Sophossaid in a statement on its Web site.
– Bloomberg News