Safer Internet Day: how users of social networks can protect themselves
Basingstoke: Yesterday was ‘Safer Internet Day’ and Barracuda Networks, a leading supplier of security solutions, offered some advice to users of social networks on how to protect themselves from attack on Facebook and Twitter. So-called “drive-by-downloads” are especially aggressive on these platforms. They can lead to a computer being compromised through a single thoughtless click. Users can protect themselves with Barracuda Network’s free tool ‘Profile Protector’, available at www.profileprotector.com
Wieland Alge, VP and General Manager EMEA, Barracuda Networks: “Criminal organisations dealing in internet attacks are not new. They now focus their activity where users are most active: social networks. Drive-by-downloads are an effective tool, as they do their damage with just a single click in a tweet or Facebook post. Common sense will remain the first line of defence, but anyone surfing without the proper and up-to-date technical security measures risks falling victim to an attack through only a moment’s lapse. Our Profile Protector scans for dubious objects and malicious links, protecting the user from attacks.”
Facebook and Twitter are both battling fake accounts used for initiating attacks. Fake profiles continue to be an effective and cheap way of distributing malicious links to users.” Barracuda published an analysis of the most common traits of fake accounts and their prevalence