I’ve been hearing a lot about viruses spreading on Facebook and seeing it personally from friends who have been infected on the social media site. Recent infections on Facebook are growing “virally”, pardon the pun. Review these tips and advice to avoid potential problems on the social media website.

You normally get one of these viruses from a friend who was unknowingly infected. They could come from a simple message, or a “video of you”. These viruses can take your personal information to log into your account and cause you to spread them to your circle of friends as well.

The most recurring one, called the “Koobface”, gives you a link to a video with “you” in it, and when you attempt to play it, you get an error message saying you need to download a file to update your Adobe Flash software. Now this “flash_player.exe” file contains the malicious Koobface code.

Another bit of advice involves keeping an eye on and adjusting your privacy settings in Facebook. There is a new privacy setting on Facebook called “Instant Personalization” that shares data with non-Facebook websites and it is automatically set to “Allow.” Go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites > Instant Personalization > Edit Settings, and uncheck “Allow”. If your Facebook friends don’t do this, they will be sharing information about you.

Just a heads up to keep alert and watch what you click on. Some of the applications on social media websites can spread infections as well. Personally I’ve always stayed away from game applications such as Mob Wars and Farmville, but proceed at your own discretion. There’s always going to be a threat of some kind somewhere, but the point is to be educated about it to avoid headaches in the future.