Developed in Russia, the virus can establish a new relationship with up to 10 partners in just 30 minutes and its victims cannot distinguish it from a human being. According to IT researchers PC Tools who are bringing CyberLover public, the program's ability to mimic human behaviour during online interactions is uncanny.
According to PC Tools, CyberLover indicates a new breed of software that can easily be used for malicious purposes, indicating a dangerous new trend in malware evolution.
"As a tool that can be used by hackers to conduct identity fraud, CyberLover demonstrates an unprecedented level of social engineering," says PC Tools senior malware analyst, Sergei Shevchenko.
"It employs highly intelligent and customised dialogue to target users of social networking systems."
Shevchenko says internet users today are generally aware of the dangers of opening suspicious attachments and visiting unusual URLs, but CyberLover employs a new technique that is unheard of.
