Facebook and Twitter open the door for network attacks
Just like in the real world, socializing on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter boosts your chances of getting a bug on your computer and some say that this problem is only going to get worse.
At least that’s the diagnosis provided by security firm Sophos in a recent publication. Sophos looked at the general state of, “Social Security,” online to find an alarming 70 percent increase in network attacks through social media.
In fact, over half of social media users have been spammed while surfing a social media site. Even more troubling is that over a third have received some sort of malware infection such as a virus on their computer while using social media.
Engineers at Sophos believe that these problems could worsen as more and more people congregate on one site such as Facebook. Not only does this mean more targets in one site, it means that the infection could spread more easily to a large number of users.
One senior consultant at the firm, Graham Cluley, says, “Computer users are spending more time on social networks, sharing sensitive and valuable personal information, and hackers have sniffed out where the money is to be made."
"The dramatic rise in attacks in the last year tells us that social networks and their millions of users have to do more to protect themselves from organized cybercrime, or risk falling prey to identity theft schemes, scams, and malware attacks," Cluley goes on to say.
That means that the security of your computer isn’t the only thing at risk online. Organized crime rings work scams to steal the identities of social network users to sell on the black market.
This increasing security risk means that social media sites and users need to be more savvy about security in order to minimize these risks. That includes never opening messages from someone you don’t know and asking someone before opening any suspicious messages.
Related Posts:
