Sophos, a leading security analyst has just recently issued its annual report on expected security threats this year. The report includes a thorough analysis of pre-existent security hazards as well as those we haven’t encountered yet. A great number of security threats classified into Social networking, Fake anti-virus, Stuxnet, SEO, Data loss and encryption, Web and Email threats, Spam and Malware etc have been discussed in detail.
The report also reveals huge rise in social networking spam and malware attacks. Most popular social networks with large users base like Facebook are becoming hotspots for such attacks, obviously. According to a user poll conducted by Sophos; 40% have been sent malware, 67% reported spam and 43% received phishing attacks during the past year. This rise in malicious activities over social networking websites is far much greater compared to data representing 2009.
A lot of people also access their social networking accounts from workplace posing huge threats to businesses. The inability of Facebook to fix a number of vulnerabilities and protect user privacy of over 500 million people has also contributed a lot towards attracting cyber-criminals.
Here’s a direct link to download the Sophos Security Threat Report 2011.
http://www.sophos.com/sophos/docs/eng/papers/sophos-security-threat-report-2011-wpna.pdf
Further Reading: Sophos report reveals increase in social networking security threats
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