When Web 2.0 Becomes Security Risk 2.0

Kaspersky Labs has an interesting article on how the bad guys are exploiting the trusted nature of Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites to launch attacks and spread malware. Note that you may need to create an account at Kaspersky in order to access the article.

Basically the idea is to exploit the poor security (e.g., passwords are sent in clear text for many social networking sites) to gain a position of trust that can then be exploited. The exploits are frequently familiar such as "advanced fee fraud" (also known as a Nigerian 419 scam) but people who wouldn't think about responding to the traditional e-mail scam are being hooked by the same fraud since it appears to come from a "trusted" friend. The level of trust users put into these sites makes tham a "social engineer's dream."

Cheers,
Dave