UPDATED 06:28 EST / JANUARY 11 2011

BitDefender reports Social Networking Mobile Threat

According to security vendor BitDefender, a recent massive Facebook scam, which downloaded a worm to users’ computers generated 28,672 clicks, 24% of which in turn originated from mobile devices.

“When data security researchers focus on finding malware specifically designed for mobile platforms, they lose sight of an important mobile platform threat source — the social network,” said George Petre, BitDefender Threat Intelligence Team Leader. “Statistics indicate that malware targeting social networks may be the biggest current threat for mobile devices, and BitDefender can help users stay safe against these types of threats.”

Social networking mobile-targeted malware translates into a lot of risk for users, but also into a very sizable market segment. This motive is what stands behind BitDefender safego, a cloud-based free Facebook app by the company which scans links posts and comments in addition to warning users about potential private data leakages.

As far as recent mobile security goes, we discussed the precedent-setting Geinimi Android Trojan, while McAfee brings early mobile threat predictions for 2011, out of which at least 2 have already been realized to date. We also covered previous social networking malware news, including Twitter’s JavaScript malware issues during their new website rollout, a particularly vulnerable time for malware to take hold on social sites.


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