Social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have soared in popularity over the last few years. They allow users to keep in touch with their friends and make new friends, but they can also expose them to malware and other online danger. As usage of Web 2.0 applications, like blogs, wikis and social networking sites increases, they become more attractive to cyber criminals. Many users of these sites are relatively new to computers and can sometimes be fairly nave regarding online threats.

All of the threats described in this article have now been eliminated by site owners, but new ones will inevitably arise as attackers develop their techniques in response to increased security measures. Social networking sites are attractive targets as their interactive nature allows them to spread threats very quickly. Many of these threats exploit the trust people have in their friends, emphasizing the fact that it is important to treat electronic communications with care, no matter who they appear to be from.

As with other aspects of Internet use, threats can be split into two categories: behavior-based and technology-based.

Behavior-Based Threats

Behaviour-based threats arise largely because users are careless regarding the personal information they share online. This can leave them vulnerable to phishing attacks and identity theft. Users often publish details of their friends, their likes and dislikes, hobbies and jobs, without realizing that this information can be invaluable to identity thieves as it can help them appear more credible.

After carrying out research on a random sample of Facebook users carried out by Sophos, an IT security company, showed that 41% were prepared to give out personal information like as email address, date of birth and phone number to a complete stranger. The researchers created a fictitious Facebook profile for a green plastic frog named Freddi and sent out 200 friend requests to random users all over the planet. 87 of the users contacted replied and 82 of them supplied personal information, like email addresses, date of birth, details about their education or workplace, address and phone number, as well as photos of friends and family and information about partners, hobbies and likes and dislikes.

Internet Safety website Get Safe Online found in 2007 that one in four British social networking users had posted confidential personal information, such as their address or phone number or on their profiles. 13% of users had posted information or photos of other people online without their permission. This figure increased to an alarming 27% among 18-24 year-olds.

Threats other than phishing can found on social networking websites. Eleven Canadian high school were suspended after making comments about their principal on Facebook when the school imposed a ban on electronic devices and implemented a uniform policy. A school spokesman claimed that the comments constituted cyber-bullying and described them as vulgar and profane.

Several stories have claimed that young girls have been raped by older men who first met them via MySpace or Facebook, but none of these stories appear to have been conclusively proved. However, it remains a major problem that social networking sites can offer an opportunity for men to meet young girls in an unsupervised environment, something which should be of great concern to parents.

Technology-Based Threats

Social networking sites can also be a source of technology-based threats. They allow millions of users to post content, so it’s almost inevitable that some of these will be malicious individuals who will try to post viruses or spyware.

At the beginning of 2008 more than three million Facebook users were infected with spyware in less than four days. A widget named “Secret Crush” or “My Admirer” is thought to have been downloaded by one and a half million users. It claimed that it would tell users who had a secret crush on them, but actually tricked them into downloading the infamous Zango spyware, which spread by asking unsuspecting users to forward it to five friends.

Anti-virus vendor Symantec has claimed that vulnerabilities which could be used by hackers to snatch control of Windows PCs have been found in ActiveX controls offered to users by both Facebook and MySpace for uploading images to their pages via Internet Explorer (IE). The insecure controls are based on an ActiveX control named Image Uploader, produced by Aurigma Inc.

Late in 2005, 19-year old Samy Kamkar wrote a worm that infected over a million MySpace users and caused a complete shutdown. The Samy worm added a million friends to his profile in only a few hours, adding the string “but most of all, Samy is my hero” to all their profiles. Kamkar was given a sentence of three years probation and 90 days of community service.

In January 2008 a 17-gigabyte file containing more than half a million pictures obtained from private MySpace profiles appeared on BitTorrent, a well-known peer-to-peer file sharing service. This is biggest privacy breach to date on a social networking site. It was made possible because a security vulnerability, first reported in Autumn 2007, allowed hackers to access the photo galleries of some MySpace users who had set their profiles to private. This is the default setting for users aged under 16. This attack allowed pedophiles and voyeurs to target vulnerable 14- and 15-year-old users.

In December 2007, Brazilian users of Google’s Orkut application were attacked by a worm that tried to hijack compromised computers and steal bank account details. It spread via booby-trapped links placed on the personal page of Orkut users and infected users when they viewed messages sent by friends who had already been exposed.

This loophole was closed quickly, but another worm, called Scrapkut, appeared on Orkut early in 2008. It seemed harmless at first, but it was soon discovered that it could intercept login sessions at several Brazilian banking Web sites and replace components with a fake authentication prompt which could capture the users’ logon credentials.

YouTube has also been used indirectly to spread malware. Many Internet users have received spam messages asking them to click on an attached YouTube video clip. However, the link actually takes them to a fake YouTube site where they are told that they need to install Adobe Flash Player to play the video. Clicking the supplied link causes a file called install_flash_player.exe to be downloaded. This is the same name as the real Flash installer, but it actually installs a Trojan known as Trojan-Dropper.W32/Agent.

Countering Threats

We’ve looked at some of the dangers you need to guard against on social networking sites, but what can you do to protect yourself against them? Technology-based attacks can often be repelled by the usual software defenses, ie: anti-virus software can prevent infection by viruses, trojans and worms, and anti-spyware programs can protect you against spyware and adware. A top-quality firewall (remember that the one supplied with Windows XP is fairly basic) can protect you against hackers and Internet safety suites can offer protection against a range of threats.

Behavior-based attacks rely on tricking users into behaving in an unsafe manner. These are more difficult to combat as they can only be countered by a changing user behavior. The Get Safe Online website offers some guidelines for networking safely, including the following:

Don’t let peer pressure persuade you to do something you’re not happy about.

Avoid posting information that could identify you, such as telephone numbers, photos of your home, workplace or school, your address, date of birth or full name.

Avoid including personal information in your username, eg: use dancing_girl33, rather than jane_brown.

Set up a throwaway email account (eg: Hotmail or Yahoo) that doesn’t resemble your real name and use that to register and receive mail from the site.

Use a robust password with eight or more characters.

Avoid saying anything or publishing pictures that could embarrass you later.

Use the privacy features on the site to control access to your profile.

Watch out for phishing scams.

If you ensure that your software defenses are strong and up-to-date and follow the above guidelines you should be able to enjoy surfing on social networking sites without problems.

If you have young children you should ensure that they are not allowed access to the Internet in an unsupervised environment. It’s much better if the computer is in a family area, such as a lounge or dining room, rather than hidden away in a bedroom. Even with older children you should try to keep an eye on their Facebook or MySpace profiles and watch out for any changes in behavior which may suggest that they are encountering online problems.

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