Security on Social Networks: A Pressing Concern?

Security on Social Networks: A Pressing Concern?

As Social networks become more and more popular, scammers and phishing is certainly on the rise within social networking sites. Scammers use crafted baits which make people become more interested and therefore make them click on the link without them thinking. Exclusive footage such as celebrity death claims like the Lady Gaga example is examples of this. Facebook has had security issues on a regular basis, with the latest having a very sickening nature of it. However, this Facebook attack was based on click-jacking technology, and did not rely for users to click on the links or images. Another problem with Facebook is the applications you can add to your Facebook account. Most people would associate Facebook applications to be safe, but this is not always the case. In 2010, 1 in 5 applications were malware.

Facebook is the most known for the security issues, but twitter has certainly not been immune. Numerous Twitter accounts have been hacked in the past, including Barak Obama. Click-jacking is a threat on twitter as well as shortened URL’s which distribute Malware if your are of the curious type. Trending Topics can further hide malware due a certain topic being tweeted so often that twitter defines this as a trend. Phishing attacks on Twitter are also easy to do, with plenty of users being caught out with phishing attacks. Social Networks and their security is always a worrying concern. New scams are always being sent to fool the end user.

However, due to the rise of mobile technology, particularly android, new threats are emerging for mobile users. This was shown by the recent malware attack through the android market as well as URLs being shortened on mobile phones, which cyber criminals can use to their advantage. How do you feel about the security of social networking systems? Do you ever think about security when using Twitter or Facebook? Would you ever think about click-jacking as a threat when tweeting on a regular basis? Social Media and particularly social networks are always giving cyber-criminals an opening. Even the XBOX360 network service is not immune, as users also happened to fall victim to a phishing attack earlier this year.

references:-

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/11/29/social-media-users-being-warned-of-new-online-scams/

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/11/facebook-crimes-on-rise-experts-warn/

http://www.crn.com/news/security/231600446/fake-anti-virus-social-network-scams-on-the-rise-report.htm

https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/9829-One-in-Five-Facebook-Applications-Contain-Malware.html

http://blog.twitter.com/2009/01/monday-morning-madness.html

http://www.webpronews.com/things-you-need-to-know-about-twitter-security-2009-07