Over a billion people visited social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter last month so it’s not surprising that hackers have these sites in their cross-hairs.
The attacks come in many forms: spreading Trojan viruses including key loggers, phishing for passwords and sniffing out packets of sensitive information.
In fact, according to recent research from Breach Security Labs, social networks were the most targeted category in 2009, accounting for 19% of all malicious attacks last year.
The media reports evidence of these attacks seemingly every day.
For instance, in late January Twitter announced that they had once again fallen victim to hackers who were using torrent-based phishing attacks to steal usernames and passwords and hack into user accounts.
This is not the first time the popular social network has been hacked.
In late 2009, some Twitter users fell victim to a phishing attack when they received email notifications from their “new followers,” with a link that lead them to a fake Twitter site where they were prompted to enter their usernames and passwords.
Facebook has had its share of malicious attacks as well.
Most recently, in January there were widespread reports of users receiving direct messages from their “friends” within the network that included a link to a website that was suspected to infect the user’s computer with spyware.
Other widely reported incidents involve offers for a free iPod touch or gift cards, when in fact the only gift these unsuspecting users received was to have their usernames and passwords sold as part of a phishing list readily available for would-be cyber criminals to purchase online.
It’s no shock that these sites are being targeted considering that the time American’s spent on social networks increased 82% in 2009 from the previous year, accounting for over 17% of the total time spent online. *
Many of the more prominent networks have taken measures to increase security and privacy settings.
For example, Facebook has begun to closely monitor the number of postings from each account to detect abnormal behavior that can indicate an account has been compromised.
If a user who normally posts once or twice a day begins to send out hundreds of messages, the account is flagged within the system and attempts are made to contact the user and alert them to change their password and advise friends not click though on links from their recent postings.
In addition to setting robust social network passwords, setting personal reminders to change your passwords monthly and taking advantage of the privacy settings afforded by each individual network, consumers can also take advantage of simple and cost effective data encryption solutions designed to lock down your personal info and passwords.
The more advanced encryption software solutions available today enable the user to securely log into websites by using specialized tools like password managers that retain all of the data regarding each account in an encrypted vault or folder.
The data entered into password managers is encrypted in case of theft or loss of the computer or USB flash drive it is stored on.
These types of password protection features are also capable of creating, storing and managing strong secure passwords so you can maintain unique IDs for each website, without having to remember them each time you log on to do online banking, surf social networks or check your email.
By utilizing tools like password managers, users eliminate the risk of exposing themselves when using computers that they do not own.
Finally, there is another very simple tool that needs to be used when on any type of social networking site: common sense.
Only put info on your walls, blogs, tweets or posts that you would feel comfortable with strangers knowing. For example, you may not want everyone to know when you will be out for the night.
This opens a door for someone to be watching and break into your home knowing you are not around.
Exercising some simple common sense in terms of what information is made public could have prevented many of the social network related horror stories we hear about every week.
With the rapid growth in social networking and the increasing instances cyber criminals targeting these online destinations, it’s imperative that we all understand the potential threats of identity theft and harm to our personal reputations.
By using simple data encryption and password protection tools, you can ensure that your personal information and online identities remain secure and private.