Personally identifying information was given out despite the
fact that 57% of those surveyed are worried about becoming a victim
of cyber-crime. Personal details are very useful to identity
thieves who can use them to access bank accounts or to gather
further personal information.
"Giving out a social security number, paired with a birthday and
name, could provide enough ammunition for criminals to hack into
financial records and compromise users' personal information," said
Ron Teixeira, executive director of the National Cyber Security
Alliance in the US.
Over 2,000 adults were surveyed by CA about their use of social
networking sites, which have enjoyed a wave of unprecedented recent
success, with market leader MySpace claiming that it has 107
million users.
The growth and management of social networking and other new
internet tools will be the subject of upcoming OUT-LAW seminar
'Legal risks of Web 2.0 for your business'.
The survey found that 46% of the users who had access to a work
computer carried out social networking at their office. That, says
CA, opens employers up to some of the liabilities inherent in
online social activity.
"As social networking use continues to increase in popularity,
it is imperative that people take steps to safeguard their
information at home and at work," said David Luft, senior vice
president of product development at CA.
"Not only is it important to install and frequently update
firewalls, anti-spyware and anti-virus software, users must be
aware of the specific unsafe behaviours which make them vulnerable
to online predators, hackers and thieves," said Luft.
Security firm Context Information Security, though, said that
the technical threat is not as great as CA implies. "The risk is a
little over-egged as corporate security is typically vastly
superior to that of Joe consumer, this shouldn't be a threat to
businesses," said Steve Matthews, security advisor at Context.
Most corporate usage policies forbid the accessing of sites such
as MySpace and the carrying on of social activities online at work.
Matthews said that this and the productivity losses stemming from
social use of technology, were the issues that companies have to
address.
"This is more of a productivity issue than a security problem,"
he said. "Businesses should already have solutions in place to
address malware such as the viruses, Trojans and worms. So the real
risk here is where such solutions haven't been implemented, or have
been configured incorrectly – only then could this be a major
problem and security threat."
Despite the common view that social networking is a teenagers'
phenomenon, the survey found that older adults make up a
significant proportion of surfers. Just under half of the adults
surveyed participated in social networking, and over half of them
were over the age of 35, the survey found.
The legal risks of social networking and other aspects of Web
2.0 are addressed in OUT-LAW's Breakfast Seminars, taking place
across the UK from 17th October.
