Facebook
is making more of an effort to limit the social media maliciousness madness. To
address this, Facebook and Websense teamed up
recently to protect Facebook’s users from third-party malicious URLs spam.
Websense is adding a layer of security to the social networking giant's
existing protection measures in hopes of preventing users from clicking on
links without understanding where those clicks may lead.
The solution is live
now. Here is how it works: when a user clicks on any link in Facebook, Websense
uses its ThreatSeeker Cloud Malware Identification platform to analyze each URL
in real-time for potential malicious content. If Websense determines that the
link is malicious, users will be warned and shown an intermediate page that
offers them the following choices:
·
Continue
at their own risk
·
Return
to the previous screen
·
Get
more information on why the page is flagged as suspicious
This development is
not unexpected. The rapid spread of social media has put many
organizations at risk. It is sure that users of various social networks cannot
live without them and they will access them from anywhere. Further, social
media is increasingly being exploited as the means for vulnerabilities and
threats. Cybercriminals are focusing now in distributing malware through social
networking sites and this will create new threats in any organization's network
or to individual’s devices. Overall, IDC believes that over the coming years
the number of cyber attacks will continue to increase.
Over the years, threats and attacks
are more blended, sophisticated, and targeted. Cybercriminals used new tricks
and methods. In the most recent years we saw not only continued sophistication
on the part of cybercriminals but also a tightening of the organizational
structures within which they operate.
Key Points:
1. For
a few organizations, social media tools are considered risky from a security
standpoint. They are least valuable to organizations; however they bring great
value among adopters or users. As social network applications gain acceptance
and are allowed into enterprises, they also bring with them concerns over the
potential of a security breach as a result of the increasingly complex forms of
malicious attack vectors. Here is a business opportunity for security vendors
who plan to create innovative new offerings that take advantage of the fast
scalability of the social-media security.
2. Facebook
is the world’s largest social network with more than 800 million users and is
becoming more and more essential for companies of any size as well as for
individual users. Most businesses recognize that Facebook has the potential to
generate tremendous value for their business. As a result, they are able to
respond in near real time, which can ultimately lead to actions that improve
the business.
3. Facebook
has many future plans like integrating social into the media consumption of
watching, listening to, and reading content and doing so using Facebook's
platform. Facebook's innovations will also help accelerate the growth of the
company's advertising business. However, with different types of
social-engineering attacks, it is possible to persuade people to click on
malicious links, allowing backdoors or other malware to be installed. Facebook
or any other social network's site has a responsibility to protect their users.
Protecting a site the size of Facebook is a major undertaking. The
Facebook-Websense announcement is only a beginning. Many such measures are
required as more and more people use Facebook for their everyday communication.
4. Malware
infections are increasing as a result of social media use. IDC's recent Asia/Pacific
security survey results show that respondents believe their organizations
suffered from an increase in malware activities. To mitigate the risks created by social media, certain technologies are
preferred. Secure Web gateways with real-time content analysis
and data-loss prevention can block advanced malware and data-theft attacks,
many of which seek entry through social media.
There is no doubt
that Facebook, like any well accepted social media platform, has become a
breeding ground for malware and other malicious links. Thus, in recent times, Facebook has employed numerous security mechanisms to
protect its sites and users. This year in May, Facebook partnered
with Web of Trust for increased protection. Web of Trust will continue to
provide its protection services to Facebook. Web of
Trust mainly checks links which are marked as malware or spam. By adding
Websense, a cloud-based solution, they further enhance the security offered to
Facebook users. The partnership is yet to prove its effectiveness on the
world's largest social-networking Web site, but giving the current attack rate,
any form of additional protection is a good thing.
If you have any questions, would like to
exchange ideas, or just say hello, then reach out to me at nhegde@idc.com
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