Internet Security - Social Network

Social Networking is the use of Internet based on social media systems to get in touch with family, friends, customers, classmates, etc. Social Networking can be done for social purposes, business purposes or both. The programs show the associations between individuals and facilitate the acquisition of new contacts.

Social Networking is becoming more and more popular nowadays. For better understanding of its popularity, see the following graph.

As you can see two thirds of the population are using social media which makes it very attractive for cybercriminals. They can hack an account of others and make profiles for different purposes which can be used as a bridge to attack their social network, or to get their data.

Profile Impersonation

The top threat for year 2015 in social media was Profile Impersonation. Many of us have seen in Facebook the fake profiles of someone that we know. This generally is made into a phishing link to your known social network. One precaution to avoid such phishing is to report the fake account immediately and let the concerned authorities take action. If you accept the friend request sent by such a fake profile, all your personal photos and other data can be stolen from your account and the hacker can use it in different ways.