1 January 2008
It is not only masses of the population that are fans of social networks such as facebook, so are the hi-tech criminals. Security professionals predict that web criminals will use 2008 to catch Internet users out.
The nature of these social networking sites involves users sharing their personal information, which inevitably leaves them open to all sorts of security risks. Having personal data enables criminals to help tune spam and phishing emails seem more convincing.
There is no mistaking that 2007 was the year that social networking sites rose in popularity as millions of people signed up to used and began posting personal information about themselves.
Senior Security Researcher at ScanSage, Mary Landesman, comments:
The technologies that play there and the third party add-ons make it an environment that is susceptible to compromise.
Social websites also help phishing attacks look more plausible. Data that criminals can obtain from networking sites can provide knowledge about the names of company employees to insights into management structure.
Landesman says:
That information can be very specific, very focused, it can mention company names, actual events and people. This information could help attackers embarking on social engineering attacks which attempt to con employees by posing as another worker or a business partner.
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