Social Networking sites are those which are used to connect and share information with each other online. Millions of people worldwide are now regularly using these sites and their services. The major Social Networking sites which are mostly used are FaceBook, Twitter, Google Plus, Myspace and LinkedIn. People are using those sites and services for different purpose, ie. to connect with friends, to build or promote business, to meet and interact within the users etc. With increasing the uses of those sites for different purpose, increased the crimes and threats through those sites day by day. So before using social networking sites, you have to know about the risk of those. It may have the following risks while using them.
1. Possibility of virus attacks: With increasing the popularity of the social networking sites services makes ideal targets for attackers who want to have most impact by using least effort. So attackers can attack on millions of computers or personal information by using viruses or other third party applications.
2. Possibility of accessing yours account: Web attackers may use those tools which allow them to unauthorized accessing and control of users account. They could access your private data and the data of your any contacts.
3. Possibility of attacking through email: You are using personal email address for accessing on the Social Sites. The attacker may use your email address from social sites account to send e-mail with malicious URL or with requesting your personal information, which are appears to originate from a trusted social sites or services. For example you may get e-mails appearing as sending from FaceBook, Twitter etc. If you follow the instruction, you may disclose your personal information or compromise the security of your system.
4. Possibility of Identity theft: Attackers can gather personal information from social networking sites accounts. They can gather enough Information from small information like e-mail, credit card or bank account etc.
5. Possibility of attacking through Third-party applications: Some of the Social Networking Sites like FaceBook and Twitter allow you to add third party applications, including games, quizzes, or that provide additional functionality. They may have malicious contents which may harm your computer system. Even if they have not malicious contents, they might access information in your profile without knowing of you. Such gathered information may be used for advertisements, performing market research, sending spam email etc.
If you are using Social Networking Sites, you must be careful for the points which I have listed above to protect your personal information and your computer system. If you know about any other risks other than I have explained above or you have any comment you are welcomed to submit on comment session.
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