Cyber-criminals really “Like” Facebook

Gauthier Befahy
Gauthier
Gauthier has been active in the IT field for over 10 years. Currently working for Scademy Ltd, He oversees global Sales and Marketing.

With 1,590 million active users per month, Facebook is the Social Network. In fact, they just posted their quarterly earnings and they are up 50%. Cyber-criminals are aware of their success.

These platforms are the ideal place to “phish” for information. 18% of companies infected by malware were infected through social networks. Attackers pass as part of a company’s customer service team in order to steal sensitive data from consumers.

A recent study was released by the RSA organization proving that cyber-crime on social networks is a “global epidemic”. The RSA organization was founded by the creators of the encryption algorithm that is used every time we make a bank operation online or digitally sign something.

Cyber-crime in social networks

is a “global epidemic”

These platforms are not only hot-spots for attacks but they have also become the perfect forum for scammers to communicate. According to the study, there are more than 500 online fraud related groups with more than 220,000 members. The majority of these groups are public and visible.