Social networking sites an open door to hackers

Stan Beer
Thursday, 05 October 2006 08:18

Your IT - Home IT

A new study has revealed that a staggering 83% of adults who visit social networking sites expose themselves to malicious hackers and identity thieves.

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The study, jointly conducted by not-for-profit cyber awareness group the National Cyber Security Alliance and software firm CA, polled 2,163 adults 18 years old and over during August and September 2006 to examine the link of between social networking behaviour and cyber-crime.

The study revealed that extraordinarily high percentages of visitors to social networking sites, such as MySpace and FaceBook, are engaging in high risk security practices, which expose them to identity theft, fraud, spyware and viruses.

According to the survey, almost half (48%) of the visitors to social networking sites are adults over the age of 18 years, with 53% of this group being over 35.

The vast majority (83%) of adults engage in high risk practices such as downloading unknown files from other people's profiles, as well as responding to unsolicited emails and instant messages, which could expose their PCs to attacks.

In addition, 74% of social networkers have given out personal information, such as an email address, name and birthday.

The report is also damning of parents, who do not adequately monitor their children's behaviour on social networking sites.