By now, everyone understands social networks sites are here to stay for quite a while, and will only become more important in the next few years. Ad by everyone, we don’t just mean your mother on Facebook, but also spammers. A security record by Sophos showed cyber attacks on social network sites have increased by 70% since March 2009. Those attacks may appear as spamming (icreased by 70,6%) or malware (increased by 69,8%). The reason why these sites are that interesting is that computer users spend more time on them and share personal information about themselves, friends and their employers. Sophos is of the opinion that too many web 2.0 sites are to much focussed on their market share and thus spend too little attention on security measures.
So there may lie a warning for social network sites starting up or even for new ones: one should make sure the security budget is sufficient. On top of that, one should keep an eye on the trends in cyber (crime) country. Because a warned man is worth two.
Source: ‘Spammers veroveren Facebook’, De Standaard, March 2nd 2010, p. 20.
