STUDY CONFIRMS RISKS OF IDENTITY THEFT FROM SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES.

The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) a not-for-profit organization, has released a study which confirms the concerns of many that social networking sites pose a significant risk to personal security and to increased risk of identity theft attacks. The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) is a public resource for cyber security awareness and education for home user, small business, and education audiences.

Social networking sites such as MySpace have become extremely popular in the last two years with MySpace alone having over 80,000,000 subscribers world wide. Social networking technologies allow individuals to create their own web pages full of personal information, chat with friends, photos, videos and instant messaging.

KnightsBridge Castle examined the risks to social networking some months ago by conducting focus groups with both teens and parents. Our conclusion was that the peer pressure to participate in social networks by teens was irresistible, and that teens often deceived parents about their use of these networks.

We also concluded that parents were unable to restrict access by their teens and children to these sites regardless of their vigilance. We advised that parents should set down rules for social networking use rather than to forbid their use. In addition we suggested for parental monitoring and enforcement of those rules.

The NCSA study concluded that many who used social networking sites were unaware of the risks to personal security and to identity theft.

We believe that this study is of great utility in understanding the risks to adults. The study has one major flaw in its methodology. It spoke only to adults. The study therefore gives the perception of adults as to the use of these sites by teens. NCSA reports that less than 25% of teens are active on social networking sites. Our studies, here in the San Francisco/Bay Area indicate that teen use of these sites exceeds 80%. In our focus groups we found that 40% of teens using social networking sites were doing so by deception to their parents.

CONCLUSIONS OF THE NCSA STUDY


83 percent of adults who use social network expose themselves to hackers and thieves by downloading unknown files potentially opening up their PCs to attacks.

74 percent have given out some sort of personal information such as their email address, name and birthday. Some have even given out their social security number. Providing this type of information can provide enough ammunition for criminals to hack into financial records and compromise users’ personal information.
57 percent of adults who social network received unsolicited emails or phishy emails asking for money, requesting account information, informing users of lottery winnings or asking users to download a video or picture.

31 percent of those who received these phishy emails actually responded to them. Responding to phishy emails dramatically increases the chances of receiving more unsolicited emails and providing personal or financial information that could be used to commit identity theft or fraud.

40 percent of employed respondents with access to a computer at work claimed to visit these types of Web sites at work, opening up their businesses to the same cyber security risks.

20 percent of adults surveyed are aware their children under the age of 17 use social networking services, only 49 percent of those adults limit access to their children’s profile.


The full report may be found at:
http://staysafeonline.org/features/ncsalibrary.html