Koobface confused with toon

More than half of British small businesses believe that Koobface was a social networking site.

A survey of 1337 small businesses nationwide by Eclipse, an internet service provider for small businesses and home users, found that 52 percent confuse the social networking worm with Facebook, while 13 percent believe it to be a cartoon character from a children's TV show.

It also found that 30 percent of respondents recognise that the virus could actually infect their computer. Forty percent said that their organisation had previously been the victim of a malware attack, yet 71 percent admitted to not having any security software on their work PC and three-quarters said they would be unable to spot a rogue link before clicking through to it.

Clodagh Murphy, director of Eclipse Internet, said: “Not for the first time, criminals are using social engineering to trick innocent victims and infect them with viruses. With more and more users logging onto Facebook at work, it is imperative that all businesses are mindful about the impact threats such as the Koobface worm could have on their day-to-day business operations.

“In today's uncertain economic world, it is understandable why SMEs may think twice before investing more in IT security. However, no investment at all could prove to be catastrophic to their bottom line.”

This article originally appeared at scmagazineuk.com