Tinypic is a similar and recent example of how legitimate service providers are used to piggyback malicious resources.
"With users flocking to popular Web 2.0 tools, including social networking sites, cyber criminals are following the masses and using these emerging platforms as new threat-delivery mechanisms with success," said Derek Manky, project manager, cyber security and threat research, Fortinet. "This is an especially effective strategy as users can view social media tools to be a trusted network. But, regardless of the image or what the link appears to be, users should always observe where any hyperlink will actually take you and exercise due care."
The FortiGuard research team compiled threat statistics and trends for July based on data collected from FortiGate' network security appliances and intelligence systems in production worldwide. Customers who use updated Fortinet's FortiGuard Subscription Services should be protected against the threats outlined in this report.
To read the full July Threatscape report which includes the top threat rankings in each category, please visit: http://www.fortiguardcenter.com/report/roundup_july_2009.html. For ongoing threat research, bookmark the FortiGuard Center (http://www.fortiguardcenter.com/) or add it to your RSS feed by going to http://www.fortinet.com/FortiGuardCenter/rss/index.html. Additional discussion on security technologies and threat analysis can be found at the FortiGuard Blog at http://blog.fortinet.com. To learn more about FortiGuard Subscription Services, visit http://www.fortinet.com/products/fortiguard.html.
FortiGuard Subscription Services offer broad security solutions including antivirus, intrusion prevention, Web content filtering and anti-spam capabilities. These services help enable protection against threats on both application and network layers. FortiGuard Services are updated by the FortiGuard Global Security Research Team, which enables Fortinet to deliver a combination of multi-layered security intelligence and zero-day protection from new and emerging threats. For customers with a subscription to FortiGuard, these updates are delivered to all FortiGate, FortiMail and FortiClient products. About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com) Fortinet is the pioneer and leading provider of ASIC-accelerated unified threat management, or UTM, security systems, which are used by enterprises and service providers to increase their security while reducing total operating costs. Fortinet solutions were built from the ground up to integrate multiple levels of security protection--including firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, VPN, spyware prevention and antispam -- designed to help customers protect against network and content level threats. Leveraging a custom ASIC and unified interface, Fortinet solutions offer advanced security functionality that scales from remote office to chassis-based solutions with integrated management and reporting. Fortinet solutions have won multiple awards around the world and are the only security products that are certified in six programs by ICSA Labs: Firewall, Antivirus, IPSec VPN, SSL VPN, Network IPS, and Antispam. Fortinet is privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California.