Cybercrime shakes trust in social networking sites

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Infosurv recently partnered with RSA, The Security Division of EMC, to conduct the 2010 Global Online Consumer Security Survey.  The study polled more than 4,500 global consumers regarding their awareness of online threats, concerns with the safety of their personal information online and their willingness to share it, and desire for better identity protection.

Key findings included:

  • Consumer awareness of phishing attacks has doubled between 2007 and 2009 and the number of consumers who reported falling prey to this attack increased six times during that same period of time
  • Nearly two in three (65 percent) people who belong to online communities indicated they are less likely to interact or share information due to their growing security concerns
  • Four out of five (81 percent) people using social networking websites displayed concern with the safety of their personal information online

Christopher Young, Senior Vice President at RSA, had this to say following the study:

“Fraudsters continue to fine-tune their array of tactics that result in millions of computers becoming infected with Trojans and other malware”.  These online criminals are adept at social engineering with at-the-ready phishing attacks that are launched within moments of breaking news about popular celebrities, professional athletes or serious global events. In these cases, people are lured to legitimate websites infected with malware as well as complete fakes designed to look like well-known news sources. Within these websites, Trojans can easily be masked as ‘required’ updates to a media player which can result in countless computers becoming infected with malware. While it’s difficult to prevent consumers from visiting these websites, we can do a better job of protecting those who do.”

The full release is available at www.rsa.com.

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Christian Wright

Christian Wright is the VP of Client Services at Infosurv. With a master’s in marketing research, he’s equipped to design actionable research that yields impactful insights and drives change.
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