Hackers Target Google ‘Buzz’

Internet security company Websense has claimed that two days after its launch, spammers started attacking Google Buzz - the social network of search engine.

As per the security alert by Websense, hackers followed almost 200 people on Buzz. They send messages to them which direct to a website hosted on a free site hosting service. The website talks about the ways to give up smoking, as per the news by v3 on February 12, 2010.

In fact, Websense security experts compared the exploitation of Buzz website with Twitter. They (security experts) stated that when social network 'Twitter' had been launched on the Web, it took some days for hackers to use it for sending spam and other harmful messages by hackers/spammers.

Carl Leonard, Security Research Manager at Websense, said that it was quite annoying that these days hackers had advanced knowledge of social networks that enabled them to attack new services such as Google Buzz, as per the news by networkworld on February 14, 2010.

Websense added that because of this attack, Google would prepare itself for managing the amount of spam that might come from the new service in upcoming days.

Carl Leonard also said that to embrace social networks such as Google Buzz carefully, organizations should protect themselves and their employees with security programs that could cope with changing web content in real time.

Websense also revealed that now-a-days threats usually dodge conventional antivirus and security programs, showing the need for unified Web, data and mail safety.

As a precautionary step, Websense suggested all web users to be careful while clicking on the links.

Buzz has attracted a great deal of criticism since its launch in the second week of February 2010. On February 11, 2010, Google was compelled to reply to user unrest about the privacy aspects of the service. The most notable concern was that users' contact lists were disclosed, and they had no control over those who could follow them. This has made them vulnerable to unnecessary spamming.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 2/20/2010