Social media addicts, brace yourselves. Cyber criminals will be targeting you on Twitter and smartphones in greater numbers this year, security experts say.
Expect the attacks to come hidden in those shortened URLs of random letters often used on Twitter, according to a report from McAfee Labs. It’s not a new method, but it will escalate as social-media users divulge more personal information.
Instead being attacked with the typical, vague, "Hey is this you?" or "Check out this funny link," the information you share on social networks lets scammers attach malicious links to messages about stores you frequent, the city where you live, they place you work or the movie you just commented on. And that makes users more likely to click the malicious link.
My Poked column this week goes into how cyber criminals are using our oversharing against us, especially with services like Foursquare and Facebook Places. And that oversharing will also mean more "smishing" - SMS phishing attacks: Cyber crooks capitalize on oversharing.
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