Users Of Social Sites Negligent Of Fundamental Internet Security

According to AVG, provider of anti-virus solutions, which recently conducted a survey, users of Twitter and Facebook, the well-known social-networking websites, tend to be negligent of maintaining security on their computers, during browsing sessions, despite increasing risks of crimes related to malware, ID theft and phishing.

Said the survey's respondents that they were anxious about rising malware, spam and phishing attacks, with 50% stating they were concerned about the loss of personal identity.

Yet almost 66% rarely or ever cared to adopt the fundamental steps for safeguarding themselves such as altering privacy settings suitably (57%), or resetting passwords from time-to-time (64%), while 90% stated that they never reported online attacks to their network admins, the security company said.

Further, almost 20% of those surveyed reported encountering ID theft, whereas about 50% reported experiencing infection on their computers with malware or encountering phishers' assaults.

Said executive director Donovan Neale-May of the CMO Council, with the worldwide rise in social-networking people alongside the increase of social networks as also mobile offerings that enabled social communities to spread their reach, the numbers of vulnerabilities and threats were growing. TheTechHerald reported this on August 27, 2009.

Neale-May added that increasing security attacks and breaches against well-known social-networking websites signified the urgency towards maintaining a proactive attitude for prevention and a culture for threat alerts amidst the sites' users.

Moreover, respondents who regularly used social-networking websites stated that they were both cognizant as also worried about the attacks. Yet, 21% said they would accept any offer from members they were not acquainted with, 26% would share data, and 64% would follow unknown links. Also, around half of respondents stated that they let members other than those they normally communicated with to view their profiles on social networks.

Consequent to such security gaffs, 20% of respondents had suffered ID theft, 47% -malware assaults or compromises, and around 50% -phishing attacks.

Meanwhile, for the survey, AVG together with the CMO Council polled more than 250 online consumers, with the results prompting researchers to state that end-users needed to focus more on personal online security rather than remain complacent about it.

Related article: Users Making Opening Online Accounts To Identify Thefts

» SPAMfighter News - 9/12/2009