Dangers of Social Media Networking
Social media networking is very powerful and very effective, of that there is no doubt. But as I have showed you before, like everything else with the Internet, there are two sides to everything. Social networking is a curvy road and you need to beware of the blind spots. To that end, this is the first of a three part series to make you aware. And I would like to thank Channel Web, http://www.crn.com, who provided the original story.
MySpace. Facebook. LinkedIn. Orkut. Who doesn't have a profile on at least one of these sites these days? The explosion of social networking has reinvented communication as we know it, creating new opportunities to develop friendships, romances and business contacts all over the world -- a fact which has not gone unnoticed by the malware authors and organized crime.
Here's a look at some of the things experts say we can expect to see more of in the world of Web 2.0 social networking.
Spam, Spam and More Spam. Spammers that are getting the door slammed in their faces with e-mail spam filters now have found new ways to access users with social networking sites, especially in the workplace. Experts say that spam is more profitable than ever.
Third Party Threats. It’s no secret that as applications acquire more functionality, the more susceptible they are to security threats. As social networking sites encourage users to build add-ons for their network, users will be opening themselves up to exploits from vulnerabilities in third-party applications.
Surprise, You've Got Spyware. Perhaps nothing is more ironic than pesky banner ads claiming that your site is hosting every kind of virus known to man and then offering to clean it up -- for a small fee of course. As more social networking users increasingly fear malware on their computers, they become bigger targets for these kinds of pop-up adware, tricking them to download fake anti-virus cleaners which are benign at best and destructive at worst.
Next week in part two we cover Worms, Flash, Phishing, holes in XXS and more.
Author Chris Kaminski is head web designer at Lone Bird Studio, an Asheville web design and SEO company located in North Carolina.
MySpace. Facebook. LinkedIn. Orkut. Who doesn't have a profile on at least one of these sites these days? The explosion of social networking has reinvented communication as we know it, creating new opportunities to develop friendships, romances and business contacts all over the world -- a fact which has not gone unnoticed by the malware authors and organized crime.
Here's a look at some of the things experts say we can expect to see more of in the world of Web 2.0 social networking.
Spam, Spam and More Spam. Spammers that are getting the door slammed in their faces with e-mail spam filters now have found new ways to access users with social networking sites, especially in the workplace. Experts say that spam is more profitable than ever.
Third Party Threats. It’s no secret that as applications acquire more functionality, the more susceptible they are to security threats. As social networking sites encourage users to build add-ons for their network, users will be opening themselves up to exploits from vulnerabilities in third-party applications.
Surprise, You've Got Spyware. Perhaps nothing is more ironic than pesky banner ads claiming that your site is hosting every kind of virus known to man and then offering to clean it up -- for a small fee of course. As more social networking users increasingly fear malware on their computers, they become bigger targets for these kinds of pop-up adware, tricking them to download fake anti-virus cleaners which are benign at best and destructive at worst.
Next week in part two we cover Worms, Flash, Phishing, holes in XXS and more.
Author Chris Kaminski is head web designer at Lone Bird Studio, an Asheville web design and SEO company located in North Carolina.
Labels: Internet Safety, Social Media Networking
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