Are Social Media Sites Compromising Computer Safety?

Posted by Karen Stephenson Jun 11, 2009

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send and read other users' updates called 'tweets'. Created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter rapidly gained popularity worldwide and in doing so, many 'Tweeters' have forgotten some of the golden rules of safe surfing.

Twitter has created a global stage for conversation and micro-blogging and in the process has possibly helped erode safe internet protocol placing many people in a vulnerable position. Roel Schouwenberg, Senior Anti-Virus Researcher at Kaspersky, recently spoke at an IT conference called Interop. In a session titled, 'Ready, Set, Attack', Schouwenberg spoke about how users are being exploited by stating, “On Twitter you are expected to trust everything that comes your way, with TinyURLs and links. You just click on something, and you don't know what's on the other end, it could be real or it could be a malicious web site.”

Young adults, teenagers in particular, are quick to trust what their friends post and click on the links. Many youth are apt to add anyone as a friend without really knowing who they are and therefore are highly susceptible to viruses and malware. David Leonhardt, owner of the social media site, Zoomit.ca says, “Internet surfing used to be simple: Google or Yahoo. Increasingly, people are following links from one place to another as multiple social media web sites replace a single search engine.”

Schouwenberg believes that Twitter is teaching people to trust things that come their way. Malware growth is rapidly increasing and Kaspersky is seeing on average, 30,000 new samples a day of malware. While most people take precautions and have anti-virus protection, it isn't always foolproof. One wrong click can let viruses and malware cause computer slowdown, complete loss of Internet access, pop-ups ads that interfere with normal operation or web-browsing and repeated system crashes.

So, is Twitter teaching people bad security habits? Temptation may be strong to click on posted links, but the common phrase 'buyer beware' can be modified to 'Tweeters beware'! Tweeting is popular and there's no need to fear that security is compromised as long as safe internet surfing rules are followed. Remember, by clicking on links provided only by trusted Tweeters, the Twitter experience will be greatly enhanced.