Facebook, Google+ et al could further increase the risk factor associated with businesses, owing to their imprudence on the security front
Social networking sites are sort of like the hanging out hubs of hackers. For what seems like ages now, at least as far as the timeframe of the tech realm is concerned, hackers have penetrated social networks and while they have a nice chitchat with their chums who also belong to the hacking creed, they also stealthily wreaked havoc with the privacy and security of the users on these social networks. Computer and Internet monitoring have spread like fire over the past decade or so, with a regular barrage of spam messages ensuring that not only individuals, but also businesses succumb to the hackers; maneuvers.
Socializing With Spam
All of us have, at some point in time, come across spam messages on our news feed and even on our wall posts. And while you might not have been hacked by these spam messages, and it might seem like only a slight inconvenience, but as far as hackers are concerned it is something a lot bigger and a lot more brutal. For, you see, hackers have made a business out of these spam messages and extracting confidential business data through them. And it;s not as if they remotely install keylogger to extract invaluable business info, it;s something a lot more simplistic, and as far as social networking sites are concerned, something that illuminated their imprudence on the security front.
Okay, But How…?
The menace might be highlighted time and again, but one goes beg the question, how does a fake Facebook message lead to the capitulation of businesses? It all starts with a staff member liking a controversial page or video, which directs them to another phony login page, and when they enter their user names and passwords, the hackers steal them. After one staff member has been hacked, it is child;s play for hackers to hack into the whole network of the firm, especially with the prevailing BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) exercise. So yes, no keylogger involved but the effect can be conjured up, and with multiple times the menace.
Extinguishing Trust
A successful spam maneuver can lead to around 200,000 people being trapped and when victims of different such hacking acts are added up it could add up to a massive database of infected users. This database can be used by the hacking groups to sell confidential business information or trade secrets to rival companies and get a hefty payday. This is precisely how hackers have been able to make a successful market out of their ;skills;; by exploiting user naivety, security lapses and the diminishing user-social network trust. Trust is one of the foremost factors that helps any social networking site muster users, and when that goes out of the window – thanks largely to the variably dangerous arrays of computer and Internet monitoring – the credibility and indeed the user-friendliness of the social networks comes into question.
Spamming Businesses
Granted individual privacy is also extremely significant, but when social networking follies lead to the destruction of businesses, the shortcomings of the securities of social networking sites become all the more fatal. Operations like ;stranded spam message; have resulted in many a business biting the dust. And even though tech savvy users are smart enough to ward off such operations, every office has its fair share of buffoons who are idiotic enough to let their accounts being hacked and in turn open up an inlet for the hackers to make their firms the practice playground of their hacking activities.
About the Author: This article is written by Natalia David. You can follow her on twitter @NataliaDavid4