Facebook warned
Facebook is in the news again. The social networking site has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in the recent past. It has apparently now released a software which intrudes into networks. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. which is based in Tel Aviv and makes software to secure networks against intrusion has issued a warning to Facebook.
Facebook’s new software called ‘Secret Crush’ is reported to be a malware threat. This software allows third party software vendors to plug applications into the site. This is a common feature of all Facebook application such as ‘Which Drink are you’, ‘Which Harry Potter character are you’ and many others. These software applications are created by a third party and then is licensed to Facebook to put up on the site. Microsoft Corp. owns a stake in Facebook and along with Google owned Orkut has left other social networking sites like MySpace and Twitter.
These applications are immensely popular among users who add them to their profiles to get an answer to the question. Check Point says that what happens is that a Facebook user gets a message that someone has a crush on them. After this they user downloads the application onto his profile which then leads to an adware application. When people open attachments they can get exposed to what are known as “phishing” scams that put harmful programs on your computer and malware on the operating systems.
There have been many issues that Facebook has faced including an application which tracked a user’s movement over the internet. Many privacy issues have also been raised. In spite of all these claims of identity theft, intrusion of privacy etc against social networking sites, their success only seems to be spiraling upwards. There is no stopping the juggernaut.
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