By Samantha Shah – 06/07/11
Even the savviest users like Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, can fall victim to hackers as headlined last January. The majority of malicious links ask for permission to access your account and post comments on your network’s walls, distributing the same malicious links in an effort to infect your entire network. It is estimated that there are over 1.5 million compromised Facebook accounts.
With social engineering scams on the rise, both Facebook and Twitter have recently made headlines with malicious attacks spreading at a viral pace. Frequency levels are of social engineering are reaching exponential proportions as hackers steal personal information for identity theft, stored credit card information for shopping sprees and spread malware.
Facebook allows you to see your friends’ posts, but the sophisticated scams are tapping into your trusted relationships. Two of the latest scams include hijacking friends’ comments with links using social engineering that redirect users to counterfeit Facebook login pages (visible in the URL address bar) or share common conversation containing malicious Iinks in disguise that automatically download malware.
Despite its increasing vulnerabilities, Facebook still offers businesses a way to increase visibility, engage a broad audience and build an online community. As long as you follow safe social networking practices and implement a stringent layered security approach, you too can reap the benefits while providing peace of mind for you, your computer and your confidential information.