2010 saw cyber attacks doubling via social networks
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 20 January 2011, 19:55 IST
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2010 saw cyber attacks doubling via social networks
Boston: Cyber attacks on social networking sites have doubled in 2010. Study uncovers dramatic increase in malware, phishing and spam via social networks. Survey charts user experience of social network, particularly in the workplace. Sophos, Global IT Security and Data Protection Company reveal its Security Threat Report 2011 explaining, growing popularity of websites, most prominently facebook makes it a sitting target for the attackers. By mid-2011 Facebook recorded half a billion of active users, making it not only the world's largest but most happening destination for the web users. Not needful to say, this massive user base is heavily targeted by cybercriminals and scammers, with number of attacks growing steadily throughout 2010. If reports have to be believed 67 percent users reported spam (up by 33.4 percent from April 2009), 43 percent phishing messages (up by 21 percent) and 40 percent malware attacks (up by 21.2 percent). "Rogue applications, clickjacking, survey scams- all unheard of just a couple of years ago, are now popping up on a daily basis on social networks such as Facebook," said Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos. Even though results vary across individual network like Facebook, Twitter, My Space and LinkedIn but half of them who were surveyed are given unrestricted access to the social networking sites at their workplace. 59 percent believe employee behavior on the social network may endanger the corporate security whereas rest worry that employees are sharing too much of the personal information on these networks. Cluley says, "Total ban on users accessing social networking sites are becoming rare, as more firms recognize the value such sites can bring in raising brand awareness and delivering social media marketing campaigns." But you've to be aware of the security risks you might come across. June 2010 Sophos poll found that 95 percent of respondents wanted Facebook to do more to prevent 'likejacking' attacks (essentially clickjacking by liking something on Facebook) and urged the site to impose stricter controls on the plug-in. The social media site is either unwilling or unavailable to fix this issue. Facebook cannot screen the name of the person rouging in your personal details, which is a serious security flaw, because of which 600 billion users are falling lame to cyberattackers.

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