Published on the 08/02/2010 | Written by Newsdesk
Report finds three out of four businesses fear corporate security risks from staff use of social networking sites…
A report published by IT security and data protection firm Sophos has revealed a sharp rise in attacks on users of social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, by cybercriminals.
Sophos’s “Social Security” investigation reveals that criminals have increasingly focused attacks on social networking users in the last 12 months, with an explosion in the reports of spam and malware.
Fifty-seven percent of users reported they have been spammed via social networking sites, a rise of 70.6% from last year, while 36% revealed they have been sent malware via social networking sites, a rise of 69.8% from last year.
“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,” said Paul Ducklin, head of technology of Sophos APAC.
“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 organised cybercrime, or risk falling prey to identity theft schemes, scams, and malware attacks.”
Sophos surveyed over 500 organisations, and discovered that 72% are concerned that employee behaviour on social networking sites exposes their businesses to danger, and puts corporate infrastructure – and the sensitive data stored upon it – at risk.
Survey respondents were also asked which social network they believed posed the biggest security risk, with 60% naming Facebook. MySpace was considered the second biggest threat (named by 18% of respondents) followed by Twitter (17%) and LinkedIn (4%).
“We shouldn’t forget that Facebook is by far the largest social network – and you’ll find more bad apples in the biggest orchard,” explained Ducklin.
