Cybercriminals are using social networking websites like Facebook to gain backdoor access to business computer networks, reports USA Today. The intrusions can expose a company to theft of its most sensitive data. Such attacks illustrate a dramatic shift underway in the Internet underground. Cybercriminals are moving aggressively to take advantage of social networks in workplace settings, an unanticipated chink in corporate defenses.
This shift is gathering steam, tech security analysts say. The volume of spam and phishing scams – like the “LOL is this you?” viral messages sweeping through Twitter – more than doubled in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, according to IBM’s X-Force security research team. Such “phishing” lures – designed to trick you into clicking on an infectious Web link – are flooding e-mail inboxes, as well as social-network messages and postings, at unprecedented levels.