social networks and security problems
Posted by David Culp in Facebook, security, Social Media, Social networking, spam
I have noticed a lot more spam and phishing attempts through Facebook recently, and this article on Mashable talks about the increasing security problems social networks and their users face. The article states that spam though social media has increased 70% in the past year.
This made me think of the article I posted last week that showed the dramatic increase of baby-boomers and elderly users on Facebook. My own mom joined Facebook awhile ago, and I know how she can be duped by some of these phishing emails. Not to stereotype, but I think older users aren't as savvy at recognizing fake attempts to visit fraudulent sites, etc.
I also noticed a few of my FB friends were signing up for the group that was supposed to help add a "dislike" button for posts, but the instructions included running code and made it obvious (to me) it was a scam. Hopefully Facebook and other social network sites will help educate users how to avoid these problems - it would certainly be in their best interest to do so.