Social Network Users Under Cyber Attack
October 24th, 2011
18.7 percent of Internet users click on all the links posted on their social networks, which puts them at high risk of becoming victims of cyber crime, reports Portaltic in Europa Press.
The study confirms that women aged between 55 to 65 years take most security measures when using social networks, while men aged between 18 to 29 years are the least cautious. By country, the Russians are the ones using social networks with fewest security measures, while UK users are the safest. The Spanish are among the ones taking more precautions.
The success of social networks and their increasing number of users is allowing many more cyber attacks, which are hidden in this type of service. Cyber criminals have found social networking an effective platform on which to access a large number of users’ personal information. Cyber criminals are increasingly designing new systems in order to trick social network users, and so distribute their malware or collect users’ data.
The G Data security company has carried out a specific study to learn the safety habits of users of social networks. With the title ‘How do users perceive the dangers of the Internet?’, the company has surveyed 15,559 online users of such services between the ages of 18 and 65 years in countries around the world.
The most noteworthy finding in the study is that one in five users are at high risk of being attacked by a cyber criminal. 18.7 percent of respondents have admitted to clicking on all links in their social networks. This practice is dangerous because cyber criminals are using messages with hidden links to distribute their malware.
“Cyber criminals are stepping up the use of social networks as effective spreaders of malware,” said Eddy Willems, security expert at G Data. “One of their favourite scams is the spread of malicious code through links posted on the web, and of course social networking,” he explained.
Willems said that social networks are an ideal space for ‘hackers’ as the social characteristics of these messages ensure the malware is distributed among friends.
G Data believe that the risk is high and affects millions of users – to illustrate the seriousness of the situation using survey data, the company said that 18.7 percent of current users of Facebook (800 million), totalling approximately 160 million users, are at high risk of suffering a cyber attack.
Although there are a large number of potential victims, the study shows that a large percentage of users, 46.2 percent, do not open any links, while 35.2 percent open only those of their contacts. This type of behaviour improves social network security and lowers the risk of cyber attack.
The study also analysed the population groups by age and sex and safety habits on social networks. According to the data, women are less likely to be subject to cyber attacks as they demonstrate safer behaviour.
Women aged 55 to 64 years were the safest users, as 59.69 percent did not access any link. For men, the safest user profile coincides in age with the women’s, although their percentage is lower, at 57, 86 percent.
Men aged between 18 and 24 years run the most risk with 26.4 percent of respondents in this age group admitting to opening all links in their social networks. Females in the same age group are also the ones most likely to be victims, with 21.54 percent saying they generally open all links.
Overall, 46.99 percent of the women surveyed said they would not open any link, while the percentage for men is 44.99 percent.
G Data also analysed the behaviour of Internet users by country. The international study showed the trend data for countries and the likelihood of their users becoming victims of cyber attacks as a result of opening malicious links.
The country whose users take least care is Russia, where 28 percent of users click on any link when using social networks, making them the ones most likely to suffer a cyber attack.
On the other hand, UK users take most precautions with only 14 percent of Britons accessing all links – the lowest percentage among the countries analysed.
The world average stands at 19 percent with Spain fairing slightly better than the average with 18 percent, which means that it is in the group of countries with fewer users at high risk of cyber attacks on social networks. Also in the Spain and UK group are France (19 percent), Netherlands (18 percent), Belgium (17 percent) and U.S. (16 percent).
“Using a security solution that incorporates some sort of web filter increases safety, and in my opinion is mandatory for anyone who values their safety online,” said Willems.
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