Bom Sabado !! How? , What? and Why ?

 First Twitter faced an attack by hackers after a security flaw was unearthed by a user. Soon after, Facebook saw its worst downtime in four years and now its Orkut's turn to be under attack by a worm known as Bom Sabado.
The attack gave millions of its users , the creeps , due to all kinds of rumors about the worm like loosing your account , cookies (saved passwords , browsing history) etc.
  
About Orkut !!
It is a Google owned social networking site, launched in 2004 . It is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. In fact, as of April 2010, 48.0% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 39.2% and United States with 2.2%.The website currently has more than 100 million active users worldwide . While it may be small compared to Facebook (which boasts of half a billion users), 52 million active Asian Orkut users is, by no means, a small number.

About the worm !!
Bom Sabado virus ( meaning Good Saturday in portuguese which is also the official language of Brazil.) is a JavaScript based worm that spreads itself through Orkut scraps . The worm is an auto generated message which might look like just another scrap from your buddy. The scrap actually embeds a malicious JavaScript code which infects the profile of the person as soon as he opens the scrap page.

The browser will be hanged for some minutes or seconds.Soon after this, the code is executed and it will make the user join bot communities automatically. The worm then starts posting scraps to the user's friends using his name, thereby spreading itself. The worm also steals browser cookies.This might lead to your account(s) getting hacked/deleted/misused with .

Experts Say :

• DO NOT visit any profile on Orkut till this script is blocked.    
• Clear your cookies and cache right away and change your password and security question.
• Find out whether some communities have been joined automatically. If yes, do remove them.  
• DO NOT click on suspicious links on anyone else's Orkut user profile.   
• Let your friends know about this script and make them aware of the situation. ( It’s just an effort to minimize the damage ). 

Hey Google !! , watsay ? 

As on September 26 , 2010 ,the search engine giant Google Inc has announced that the virus attack on Orkut was removed.Orkut has now posted an entry at its support site where it says that the worm is now contained.
Google released a statement in their blog which notified all users that the worm was cleared and Orkut is safe. This is the second virus attack on Orkut. The attack came just after a month Orkut unveiled the new exciting home page and features.
"This is to inform you all that we’ve contained the 'Bom Sabado' virus and have identified the bug that allowed this and have fixed it. We’re currently working on restoring the affected profiles. Thanks a ton to each of you who’s made an effort to alert everyone else about this. I’ll make sure to keep you guys posted on more updates," said Google Inc in their blog.
    
General tips for Orkut Usage !!

• Don’t ever login to any site rather than www.orkut.com
• Don’t ever run any JavaScript while logged into your orkut account.
• Never use any flooder in your account
• Don’t ever share your password with anyone else and keep changing your password regularly.
• Don’t ever click suspicious link while logged into Orkut a/c. If you are curious you can copy the link and check them in other browser after cleaning it’s browser’s cookie and cache.
• Don’t ever install any suspicious script on grease-monkey and ALWAYS DISABLE THE GM before logging in to orkut.
• Do your mobile verification also, so that you can get back your a/c if hacker doesn’t change the mobile number there. visit :  http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#MobileSetupSettings
• Install a good Update Anti-virus and Anti Key logger and keep your system free from Key loggers and back-door trojans.
• Use Virtual Keyboard to enter your password for more security. 

 Happy Orkutting !! :)