Facebook users, take heed: Some secrets are best left undisclosed, no matter how juicy and intriguing. Those who have encountered the application within Facebook called “Secret Crush” are bound to get a surprise because the said app actually loads adware/spyware that can spread in their friendly virtual neighborhood. With close to 60 million users and still growing, the popular social networking site is once again the target of a malicious attack.

There comes a time in every young person’s life—soon after teething, usually—when she must make a momentous decision: MySpace or Facebook? One’s preference is a matter of taste. MySpace, if you ask me, is a spam-infested state of nature. The average user page comes with a crapload of embedded music and video players, some seizure-inducing wallpaper, and a bunch of friend requests from “models” who want to “get to know you.” (It also happens to be nearly three times the size of Facebook.) Facebook, on the other hand, is much less customizable but also a lot more reassuring. The interface is comfy, sturdy, and attractive without being showy—the kind of social network you’d bring home to Mom. Think of it as the Volvo of social networking.

Secret Crush was quickly branded a malicious widget by the security researchers who discovered it, seeing as how it poses as a legitimate application that promises to reveal someone’s admirer(s). In reality, it loads an adware/spyware associated with Zango, which historically has been linked to adware and spyware designed to gain access to certain games, DRM-protected videos, and software. In 2006, the FBI gave it a fine of US$3 million for allowing third parties to secretly install its adware.

Secret Crush also tricks affected users into forwarding the application to their friends in Facebook, increasing the chances of the program being passed around. The best thing that can only happen when it is installed is that users come to realize that no list of their admirers will actually be revealed. But by then they would have already forwarded it to friends, who would have forwarded it to other friends, and so on. According to this post in Wired.com’s Threat Level blog, around 4% of total Facebook users have already added it, bringing the number of affected users to about a million.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 3:15 pm and is filed under International Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.