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Social networking websites have become normally used for many internet users. Facebook, the most popular, has more than 500 million registered users. Twitter has recently exceeded the milestone of 200 million registered users, and even the relatively young Foursquare has reached 3 million registered accounts.

The ages of social networking users are becoming diverse as well. A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found the number of internet users between the ages of 50 and 64 that are registered with a social networking site increased from 25 percent in April 2009 to 47 percent this year. Likewise, 25 percent of users ages 65 and up have registered with Facebook or a different social network, up from 13 percent last year. Also considering the vast worldwide networks of other sites, such as LinkedIn and MySpace, the internet world is beginning to focus around social media sites

However, just as any other successful online program, system or device draws more attention from cyber criminals based on its growing popularity, social networking users will begin to face a number of privacy and malware threats. These scams become successful on social networking sites because each compromised account is connected to other accounts. Many successful social networking scams compromise an account and send out messages that are spam, that spread the harmful software to other users connected to the original malware victim. Just as social networking sites connect millions of friends over the internet, they also connect cyber criminals to millions of potential targets.

Social networking sites can also become dangerous when malware attacks decipher a particular user's account password. Cyber criminals do know that some users assign the same password for each one of their online accounts, to provide a simple way to remember the password for every important account. As a result, hackers design keylogging viruses that, when launched through social media or some other method such as email, can record login data. Once cyber criminals have obtained some user's social networking account passwords, they may have stolen the exact password that could lead to identity theft through online banking or credit card websites.

Another increasingly common threat is phishing campaigns which target social media account information. Hackers develop phishing campaigns to send out fake messages to users claiming affiliation with a familiar organization that often requests that the recipient provides information pertaining to an account. The same exact technique can be used for social networking. For example, a recent phishing scam claimed to offer Facebook users a "dislike" button for their accounts providing they give personal information. The phishing attack was successful, as the website reported more than 5,000 responses from registered users.

To further protect against the inherent threats of social networking, security experts hope that users take time to educate themselves and install a protective antimalware software so they do not need to worry about malicious attacks while on social networking sites. As long as users understand the techniques of cyber criminals looking to target this popular internet attraction, and have the proper security measures installed on their computer, social networking can be a fantastic and exciting way to safely connect with friends.

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