Facebook users report seeing large amounts of image spam in their news feeds, depicting acts of violence, pornography, mutilation and bestiality. The site says it is investigating the issue, but did not give any possible cause for the problem.
BetaNews has received reports of spam messages typically sent with the word "YUKKY" and including a shortened link, although it is not immediately clear whether this has anything to do with the graphic imagery. The images show up in victims profiles as being "liked".
The imagery is disturbing. "It looks like I am boycotting Facebook till they get this hacking worked out", actress Courtney Zito tweets. "The images I have seen today were enough to make me ill".
BetaNews has seen some of this imagery firsthand. One image that was sexual in nature portrayed an act of gross mutilation; several others included various sex acts.
A check Tuesday morning by BetaNews of known victims found the images removed from their profiles, indicating Facebook is acting swiftly. This week's attack appears to be one of the largest and most coordinated in the site's history, however.
"It's precisely this kind of problem which is likely to drive people away from the site", Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley says. "Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again".
Facebook was the target of click spam attacks in the past, but this event seems far larger in scale. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, although some people blame Anonymous. The hacktivist collective was rumored to be planning an attack on the social networking site for November 5, however, it never occurred.
Until Facebook assures users that the issue is under control, users should exercise increased caution. Additionally, users shouldn't click any links sent by friends, especially those that appear shortened. At this time, that appears to be the most likely vector for the spread of the attack.
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