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Social media: New playground for cybercriminals
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 10 December 2009, 14:58 IST |
1 Comments
Bangalore: Networking giant Cisco has issued its Annual Security Report for 2009, which highlights the impact of social media, particularly social networking, on network security and explores the critical role that people, not technology, play in creating opportunities for cybercriminals.
Social networks have become a playground for cybercriminals because members of these sites put an inordinate amount of trust in the other members of their communities and often fail to take precautions to prevent the spread of malware and computer viruses. Patrick Peterson, Fellow, Cisco said, "The blending of social media for business and pleasure increases the potential for network security troubles, and people, not technology, can often be the source. Without proper cognizance of security threats, our natural inclination to trust our 'friends' can result in exposing ourselves, home computers and corporate networks to malware."
According to Peterson, the value of social media is becoming acknowledged increasingly by businesses, but these same organizations need to provide the proper training and education to ensure that employees avoid compromising themselves and their businesses. Social media experienced explosive growth in 2009. Facebook alone tripled its active user base to 350 million over the course of the year. Social media adoption is expected to continue growing into 2010, especially as more organizations realize the value of social networks as an absolute business requirement.
The Annual Security Report also provides more information on the potentially devastating combination of minor vulnerabilities, poor user behavior, and outdated security software that can dramatically increase risks to network security.
The Annual Security Report also includes winners of the 2009 Cisco Cybercrime Showcase and discusses trends in cloud computing, spam and overall global cybercrime activities that information technology professionals continue to face. The first-ever Cisco Cybercrime Showcase acknowledges security professionals holding the front lines in the fight against cybercrime, while certain attacks are noted for causing significant trouble for Internet users in 2009:
Most Audacious Criminal Operation: Zeus. A Trojan that delivers malware by targeted phishing and drive-by downloads, Zeus goes beyond login names and passwords to steal numerous online banking credentials.
Cybercrime 'Sign of Hope': The Conficker Working Group. This group, composed of members of the security community and industry, is credited with significantly muting the impact of the network worm Conficker, which was anticipated to wreak havoc starting on April 1, 2009.
Most Notable Criminal Innovation: Koobface. This worm regenerated itself, first appearing on Facebook in 2008, then Twitter in 2009. Koobface lures users into clicking a link for a YouTube video that launches the worm. More than three million computers have been infected by variants of this malware.
