Viruses corrupting Facebook

Unfortunately we found out the hard way today, facebook seems to have sent a very good virus into my work computer, our computer wiz guy told us that Facebook is getting a lot of virus traffic right now. It has sure put a damper on my day today, so I figured I would come on here and let others know about it. I use facebook for advertising my photos until I get my website up and going (should be up before Spring).

I fell prey also, Andrea. Something popped up that looked like it came from microsoft, saying my computer was infected with multiple viruses. I brainlessly clicked through and stupidly installed the app that was to get rid of them, and then it sent me to a page asking for a credit card - of course I didn't give one, but the app was installed and wouldn't let me go to System Restore, Add/Remove Programs, or let me launch Norton Antivirus. It would pop up constantly, with every click of anything, and made my computer useless. I ended up wiping the hard drive and starting over. Fortunately, it was my kids' laptop, and I didn't lose anything important. Lesson learned.

Well we were able to get it off of here (fortunatley we have a really smart computer guy for a friend who does this for a living). My stepsons told me that everyone in their school are getting viruses on their computers and laptops (the kids in high school have laptops now). But I'm trying to stay clear of Facebook and myspace on my important computer now.

I won't and don't use any social networking systems for that very reason.

FYI if you stay away from the "apps" and "games" on facebook it's relatively safe. You won't get a virus from updating your status or leaving a comment on your friend's page - the problems come from the extra garbage. Myspace is a different story altogether..

So I can pretty much get onto Facebook update my page (I don't have any apps or games I think, if I do I am going to be deleting them, but should I wait until I'm on my laptop at home to delete them or would it be safe on my business computer?) and can I still safely check friends' updates or their pages without getting a viruses?

That's correct Andrea. Nothing in "normal" or default Facebook activities should be able to infect you - such as wall posting, viewing pics, status updates, news items, etc. For the apps you have I can't think of any reason not to delete the apps from anywhere, but why not just wait until on your home PC to be safe? Of course, if an app is running fine and has for a while and has a lot of users, I don't think it's unsafe. But in general I don't install things to my page.

Thanks David, I'm definitely going to be cautious from now on, and I won't be getting on myspace while on my business computer, thought I don't get on there anyways anymore.