URL Shorteners
With more than 3,000 shortened URLS generated per minute, McAfee predicts an even larger number of links pushed out through social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) that will lead unwitting clickers straight to spam, malware or other scam pages – a risk that will increase social media begins to outshine traditional e-mail. “Quite honestly, it’s a lot easier for the bad guys to take advantage of people through social media than it is through e-mail because you can track what people are already talking about through Facebook and Twitter and actually insert yourself into the conversation,” Marcus says. “This way, you can attack them based on what they’re already telling you.”
Though some social sites make a concentrated effort to protect users from unfriendly web fire, most of the responsibility lies with the individual. There are some things they can do at the back end, but at the end of the day, they’re a conduit for social communication and that’s certainly a double-edged sword,” Marcus says. “They have to walk that fine line of protecting user data and encouraging communication.” Users can and should take an active interest in their own cybersecurity, notes Marcus saying that people must become aware of their privacy options and of the third-party applications they allow access to their accounts.
