You have heard of social media and social networking. Have you heard about social engineering? Social engineering is an evolving phenomenon whereby hackers and phishers are taking the user interaction of social media website members and using it against them.
One example of a social media virus was sent in the form of an email sent to Facebook users from “a friend on Facebook”. The email prompted recipients to go to a link, supposedly sent from a friend. When users followed the link, it took them to a site that immediately began installing software on their computer and sent identical emails to everyone on their Facebook friends list. The installed software could exploit the users passwords, financial information and much more.
Fake emails, luring recipients to visit bogus website and enter their personal information, credit card numbers and other details have gone by the way-side as people become more savvy and aware of these scams. Thankfully, the media has done a fabulous job of getting the word out to internet social networking site users to watch out for specific threats.
Unfortunately, as quickly as word is spreading about current threats, new threats are surfacing every day. Web 2.0 really opened the door for malicious programmers to take advantage of the unaware. There have been attacks on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Other sites that are less popular seem to be relatively unaffected. But, for how long will that be the case?
Facebook has been a reluctant target of these scams because of the ability of users to add applications to their specific homepage. Malicious code in some of these applications, also known as apps, can remotely change a user’s settings, security and privacy levels, personal information and password in just a few minutes from the time the app is added to an account.
It seems that lately, there are strange messages coming from FaceBook users. Recommended applications to add, links to click on and videos to watch. Users are warned to be careful what they click on and to ask the supposed sender if there is any suspicion that a posting or message is a scam.
When experts are asked how social media website members can protect themselves from these scams, the risk of identity theft or worse, the answer is simple. They recommend that anyone concerned about these things should just not use the sites. This is easier said than done. There are over 200 million users registered with FaceBook! FaceBook is just one of the many social networking websites. Can you imagine how many people are registered in total?
Experts warn that Facebook attacks will likely continue, as the threat is always different and the hoaxes are masked so uniquely that users continue to be affected. As long as the malware is propagated successfully, it will continue to be spread through the online world of social networking.
The administrators at the major social networking sites are all working hard to protect users from the malware attacks, and the legal system has also gotten involved. Federal judges have started issuing injunctions against known spammers and hackers who were taking advantages of security glitches in Facebook and MySpace. Hopefully, the programmers for these sites can fix the glitches and the legal system will continue to prosecute those who are benefiting from the malicious social engineering that is the social media virus.
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