How many of us click on the links sent tous by trusted friends? Does the trust implicitly extend to the linksthey are sending? This trust is precisely what phishers take advantageof. Traditionally phishers have mainly used instant messaging (IM) andemail to take advantage of the average user. However, with the rise insocial networking sites the phishers have bought themselves a brand newplaying field.
Symantec has recently observed millions of user profiles of acertain social networking site carrying malicious links. Here is anexample of one of them:
The interesting thing here is that the malicious link appears to bea comment from a trusted friend. In most cases the trusted friend isnot the perpetrator behind these attacks. The most likely scenario isthat the trusted friend’s social networking...
