Are Social Networks a Ticking Time Bomb?
While most of us know to avoid e-mails from unknown senders asking for international wire transfers and decline friend requests from model-like strangers, the biggest threat to our online security may be from our friends and families. As old tricks no longer work, scammers have stepped up their efforts, turning our curiosity, trust in friends, and human laziness against us.
The internet continues to serve as a limitless feeding ground for our curiosity. From random YouTube videos to the latest gossip to Wikipedia articles to polls and quizzes, most (if not all) of us indulge in the exploration of curious and curiouser. The Ikatako virus has infected 20,000 to 50,000 computers on a Japanese P2P program disguised as an anime mp3. Meanwhile, several users found themselves scammed by the offer of a Facebook “dislike” function that forced users to complete a survey for this add-on. As we continue to put more of our lives on the web, we find ourselves only with more questions, more links, more requests, and more opportunities to expose ourselves in danger.
We’re taught at a young age to avoid talking to strangers – for the most part that still carries along on the web. Random emails, tweets, and messages- most are sure to avoid. However, as marketers have learned, there is great power in the word of mouth from our friends and families. Companies such as Facebook and Amazon have built their empires on our trust in one another, nudging actions from us by informing us that “Jake is a fan of the Simpsons (would you like to be one too?)” and “Cindy has given a glowing review of that Disney DVD (perhaps you should buy it!).” It’s this viral nature of the internet that scammers are using now to spread themselves.
Twitter yesterday experienced an explosion of posts about one’s “Twifficiency” score. In the tweet, there is an offer for one to find out their own score. Since tweets normally come from friends (or trusted sources one actively chooses to follow), it’s much easier to click through without reservation.
This is also a potential issue with link shorteners. Whereas full URLs should provide clues to a link’s validity, it’s incredibly difficult to verify a shortened link, aside from clicking through. While we shouldn’t suddenly drop all our online friend connections, it is important to think twice before we accept links and files, even when they appear to come from a trusted source.
Most of these scams, however, can simply be avoided if it wasn’t for the sheer laziness in us. While the truly malicious will do all it can do disguise itself, much of the “scams” we see today do provide clues and warnings – it’s just a matter of us stopping to look twice. The Twifficiency link does warn users that upon completion, the program will automatically send a tweet to one’s contacts. In the case of a wallpaper-app developer that was accused of scamming Android users, the now-vindicated developer was retorted that a warning screen is always shown before any download on the Android Marketplace (to inform users of the extent in access an app may have to one’s phone).
Yet, these warnings are often avoided and skipped. Perhaps it’s the seemingly endless terms and conditions that we’ve trained ourselves to tune out the makes us jump straight to the “Accept” button. Despite being taught since we were young to read all directions, fine print, and terms before starting, our laziness and need for immediate gratification may be our own undoing.
Think twice before you grant access to an app!
The web, at the end, is an open world, subject to the same perils and dangers we face outside our computers. Currently, most of the “dangers” out there are relatively harmless – usually a hassle or a giant word of apology to one’s contacts; however, the components are all there for a much larger and damaging attack. The question is not as much if as it is when. It’s important to remain vigilant and wise when surfing the web. While it may cause us to fight against our gut reaction to just click away, a few moments of thought may prevent a world of headache.
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