“Think before you link” – Justify in perspective to Social Networking Sites.
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Explanation:
cial Business | March 5, 2010 -- 09:05 GMT (14:35 IST) | Topic: Collaboration
Jennifer Leggio is at RSA Conference
Guest editorial by Anthony James
It strikes me as somewhat of a mystery that the social networking explosion has not given rise to equal amounts of reaction to the security concerns it can create. Besides the obviously sensationalized issue of "bullying" or intimidating through this personal medium, the greater issue of security is a significant concern that should be thoroughly thought about and discussed.
Consider a typical social networking environment in which users are able to link with friends, distribute topical commentary and share endless bounds of content treasures discovered by even more endless "circles of friends." I will admit, there are some nuggets of gold to be had within these social circles and content sharing, but there are also many nuggets of pyrite (fools gold) with sinister intention hidden in the seemingly endless treasure trove of links.
By dissecting the nature of social networking, it is easy to see how a threat can flourish at an alarming rate on a large scale of unknowing recipients. Given that the "circle of contacts" users typically befriend are people that they know and inherently trust. And since there is an assumed trust, one would not expect these contacts to knowingly distribute malicious links or content. Unfortunately, trust is not 100 percent guaranteed, and is possibly compromised by hackers discovering login credentials and pushing their attack items to the trusted contacts from that login. Even more alarmingly, third-party applications inherent to social networks have been identified as sources of malicious intentions. Obviously the social networking vendors are taking security seriously and scrutinizing externally developed applications before they are published on their networks, but unfortunately, as seen in 2009, there will always be a highly motivated developer determined to don their wares on unsuspecting recipients and figure out a way to bypass security measures.