Chances are you’re one of the 500 million people who actively use Facebook. Unfortunately, as the popularity of social networking grows, so do occurrences of worms, malware and other dangerous threats.
Cyber-criminals have established social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as an attack venue. Studies suggest that spamming and malware occurrences are rapidly accelerating. Here are some staggering statistics from CRN.com:
“According to Sophos, about 40 percent of the 1,200 social networking users polled have been sent malware, such as worms, via the social networking sites they frequent. That’s an increase of about 90 percent second the summer of 2009. Additionally, two thirds of users queried, said they have been spammed via a social networking site, which is more than double the proportion of social networking users just two years earlier. And, Sophos found, 43 percent of respondents said they have been on the receiving end of phishing attacks, which is more than double the number from 2009.”
Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is a victim. Yesterday, a hacker broke into his fan page on Facebook and posted a status update that suggested Facebook seek investment from the site’s users instead of banks. See the full post here.
