Blue Coat: Social Networking Becomes Malware Vector

Social networking has become a leading source of malware, according to a newly released 2011 Blue Coat Web Security Report. In particular, social network phishing and click-jacking attacks were the two most common types of attacks through social networks in 2010.



Blue Coat said this shift of phishing attacks to social networks is particularly driven by the attempt to obtain user credentials that can also provide access to banking, financial and other online accounts that use shared passwords.



"Today, dynamic Web links are the most powerful tool cybercrime has, and static Web ratings that require update cycles are too slow when the bad guys can harvest users within minutes," said Steve Daheb, chief marketing officer and senior vice president at Blue Coat Systems.



Blue Coat develops its security reports by analyzing data from its WebPulse service, which weekly rates nearly three billion requests in real-time, to provide a comprehensive overview of the changing ways in which people are using the Internet and the new methods cybercrime is using to target their attacks.http://www.bluecoat.com