Facebook has taken measures to stop the spread of a new variety of malicious software that has so far managed to steal the login details from 45,000 users, most of them located in the UK and France.
According to security experts, the Ramnit worm has been slowly spreading since April 2010 but has apparently been recently adapted to target Facebook details. It was previously used by criminals to steal login credentials for other services such as online banking.
This latest threat to Facebook users was highlighted this week by the Israeli security firm Seculert. According to Seculert, those behind the new Ramnit variant are using it to steal login details in order to access victims’ Facebook accounts and send malicious links to their friends.
Facebook said that it had learned of the new attack on its users last week and has already taken action. It said it had studied the 45,000 stolen login details and concluded that most of it was out of date, although all affected users will be forced to reset their password to improve security.