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Why Social Media Sites Are The New Cyber Weapons Of Choice
Threaded  |  Newest First  |  Oldest First
Joe Stanganelli
Joe Stanganelli,
 User Rank: Ninja
9/6/2016 | 7:21:33 PM
FB
A Facebook friend of mine (or, rather, his FB friends) recently fell prey (sort of) to an FB scam.

I received a FB invitation from this FB friend of mine (who is a relative).  I accepted -- thinking all the while, "Gee, I thought I was already friends with him").

Immediately, I got a FB message from him asking me how I was.  I replied appropriately.  I asked in turn.  He said he was really excited.

That's weird.  About what? I asked.

He told me he was excited about new mortgage rates or some other nonsense.

And that's when it became crystal clear that this was somebody masquerading as my relative.  Sure enough, I was -- as I had previously suspected -- already FB friends of this person (the real one).  The scammer had taken my relative's FB profile name and profile picture to masquerade as him, and then started sending invites to all of his FB friends.

Most people (all, I hope) saw right through the scam.  And it's certainly one of the more benign ones to have happen to your profile.  But still, an annoyance.

Whoopty
Whoopty,
 User Rank: Ninja
9/7/2016 | 7:31:03 AM
Re: FB
That's quite a smooth one, though it seems fairly innocuous. If you restrict yourself to people you know well, rather than too large a list of extended 'friends' you're quite likely to pick up on differences in the way they speak and catch on that it's a scam: as you did in your story. 

It's bound to catch some people of course, but that's the benefit of targeted attacks: they are often far more effective. 
Joe Stanganelli
Joe Stanganelli,
 User Rank: Ninja
9/8/2016 | 4:15:23 PM
Re: FB
I think that if anyone messages you on Facebook for the primary purpose of telling you how excited they are about low mortgage rates and you DON'T find that weird or suspicious or unwelcome (and assuming you're not an utter fool), then either you are super weird, your FB friends are super weird, or both.
nh10
nh10,
 User Rank: Author
9/9/2016 | 5:48:54 PM
Re: FB
Whoopty, I certainly agree with your advice that people need to scrutinize every friend request and only accept those from people they actual know, but we shouldn't underestimate how tricky this can be for some people.

Recent studies show just how trusting, and therefore, susceptible most people are to such social media scams. In fact, 43% of internet users accept friend requests from others who they don't even know, and more than one-quarter (26%) admit to clicking on friends' links without any level of scrutiny or hesitation at all!

Even veteran security specialists fall victim to social engineering campaigns. The Dark Reading audience is most certainly less likely than the general population to succumb to such attacks, but anyone can make a mistake. And with social media potentially distributing spam to thousands in minutes, it's easy to see why social media has become such an exploitable and cost-effective attack vector.
nh10
nh10,
 User Rank: Author
9/9/2016 | 5:29:41 PM
Re: FB
Great example, Joe! As my article probably makes it clear, these scams are occurring more and more frequently. As the over population becomes more savvy in identifying scams, cybercriminals continue to adapt and improve the scams to appear more legitimate.
lorraine89
lorraine89,
 User Rank: Ninja
9/12/2016 | 8:48:53 AM
Protecting online identity
Nice informative article. Just about time for social media users of all platforms, to secure their online identity. It's time that internet users feel the need to secure their connections by deploying vpn servers. I have myself been the victim of online counterfeiting via phishy email scam, therefore, I use PureVPN now to hide my IP from all sorts of tracking and preventing from those scam emails. 
lorraine89
lorraine89,
 User Rank: Ninja
10/27/2016 | 9:25:36 AM
Cyber security
Social media sites have become the safe haven for cyber security blows altogether for the fact that users on such sites pay pretty much least attention towards data security measures. Therefore, it is essential to never compromise our online security. I use PureVPN to secure my account from the perils of data theft and to avoid any form of hacking attempt. 
lorraine89
lorraine89,
 User Rank: Ninja
10/27/2016 | 9:25:58 AM
Identity theft
Social media sites have become the safe haven for cyber security blows altogether for the fact that users on such sites pay pretty much least attention towards data security measures. Therefore, it is essential to never compromise our online security. I use PureVPN to secure my account from the perils of data theft and to avoid any form of hacking attempt. 
lorraine89
lorraine89,
 User Rank: Ninja
10/27/2016 | 9:27:20 AM
Cyber security
Social media sites have become the safe haven for cyber security blows altogether for the fact that users on such sites pay pretty much least attention towards data security measures. Therefore, it is essential to never compromise our online security. I use PureVPN to secure my account from the perils of data theft and to avoid any form of hacking attempt. 
lorraine89
lorraine89,
 User Rank: Ninja
10/27/2016 | 9:27:20 AM
Cyber security
Social media sites have become the safe haven for cyber security blows altogether for the fact that users on such sites pay pretty much least attention towards data security measures. Therefore, it is essential to never compromise our online security. I use PureVPN to secure my account from the perils of data theft and to avoid any form of hacking attempt. 
desertlifetour1
desertlifetour1,
 User Rank: Apprentice
9/29/2017 | 8:17:13 AM
Re: Cyber security
Great article  thanks for sharing
lorraine89
lorraine89,
 User Rank: Ninja
10/27/2016 | 9:27:27 AM
Cyber security
Social media sites have become the safe haven for cyber security blows altogether for the fact that users on such sites pay pretty much least attention towards data security measures. Therefore, it is essential to never compromise our online security. I use PureVPN to secure my account from the perils of data theft and to avoid any form of hacking attempt. 
lorraine89
lorraine89,
 User Rank: Ninja
10/27/2016 | 9:27:42 AM
Cyber security
Social media sites have become the safe haven for cyber security blows altogether for the fact that users on such sites pay pretty much least attention towards data security measures. Therefore, it is essential to never compromise our online security. I use PureVPN to secure my account from the perils of data theft and to avoid any form of hacking attempt. 
lorraine89
lorraine89,
 User Rank: Ninja
10/27/2016 | 9:28:04 AM
Cyber security
Social media sites have become the safe haven for cyber security blows altogether for the fact that users on such sites pay pretty much least attention towards data security measures. Therefore, it is essential to never compromise our online security. I use PureVPN to secure my account from the perils of data theft and to avoid any form of hacking attempt. 
lorraine89
lorraine89,
 User Rank: Ninja
10/27/2016 | 9:28:47 AM
Identity theft
Social media sites have become the safe haven for cyber security blows altogether for the fact that users on such sites pay pretty much least attention towards data security measures. Therefore, it is essential to never compromise our online security. I use PureVPN to secure my account from the perils of data theft and to avoid any form of hacking attempt. 
amiee
amiee,
 User Rank: Apprentice
10/31/2016 | 8:21:50 AM
Re: The problem here is not the time
Ich habe eine lange Zeit für diese Art von Nachrichten online, Ihr Konzept insgesamt großartig für uns.
FranckD064
FranckD064,
 User Rank: Apprentice
4/22/2017 | 9:54:07 PM
Social hoverboard
Totally agree with your opinion
amiee
amiee,
 User Rank: Apprentice
11/1/2016 | 11:25:59 AM
From here we got the tips!
Great article for social media, and I have got the tips you shared me, but for the expirence of social media running, is it better to post ADs on social media website? Is it worth to pay for the ads for our website...
Benefiter
Benefiter,
 User Rank: Apprentice
11/2/2016 | 5:16:35 PM
Re: From here we got the tips!
Your information is astounding!! I will recommend it to my brother and anybody that could be attracted to this topic
bradprat
bradprat,
 User Rank: Apprentice
5/29/2017 | 6:49:36 PM
Re: From here we got the news! Re:
It is no secret that no information is safe that we share on social media. Good informative article
aghasohail
aghasohail,
 User Rank: Strategist
11/3/2016 | 1:14:49 AM
The tip here is to keep educating your self.
Very nice information. In my opinion we should keep educating our self to get maximum level of security we can get. Thanks.
TimTonne
TimTonne,
 User Rank: Apprentice
11/4/2017 | 12:09:08 PM
Re: The tip here is to keep educating your self.
Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a outstanding job! Thx dd3sat.
Dubai Desert Safari
Dubai Desert Safari,
 User Rank: Apprentice
11/13/2016 | 4:08:00 AM
Thanks
<a href="https://www.dubaieveningsafari.com/">Thanks to share informations, from Desert Safari Dubai</a>
torrent9sc
torrent9sc,
 User Rank: Apprentice
7/4/2018 | 6:41:51 PM
Re: Thanks
Totally agree with your sharing information
juliazz
juliazz,
 User Rank: Apprentice
3/26/2017 | 7:04:55 AM
Social media
Totally agree with your post, social media is dangerous thing.
kv24ob
kv24ob,
 User Rank: Apprentice
6/27/2017 | 6:19:14 AM
Re: From here we got the news!
Let me get this straight: Microsoft new about both tools and exploits but didn't patch them until now?
desertlifetour1
desertlifetour1,
 User Rank: Apprentice
10/7/2017 | 1:08:40 AM
Desert Life Tourism
Totally agree with your sharing information 

 
DesertsafariDubai
DesertsafariDubai,
 User Rank: Apprentice
12/11/2017 | 12:38:02 AM
Desert Safari Dubai
Hi Thanks for sharing this post. its realy Help full :)
SC-B
SC-B,
 User Rank: Author
2/24/2021 | 7:14:02 AM
Social media issues
And this is just the behind the scenes aspects - people forget that social media is just a large pinboard that the world can see and use


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