According to researchers at McAfee, LinkedIn could be the next networking site that puts users in danger of picking up a malware infection via faked profiles.
The McAfee researchers believe that several hundred fake profile pages on the business networking site are enticing users with the promise of nude photos of celebrities.
If a user clicks on a link which promises to lead them to such photos they will, instead, be taken to an external site which will then attempt to launch an iFrame browser exploit before redirecting them to other potentially harmful sites.
Micha Pekrul, a McAfee researcher, wrote the following in a blog post -
“When an unsuspecting user follows the lure, he will end up on different malicious web sites trying the classic social engineering tricks of the ‘missing video codec’ or a fake anti-virus scan telling the user his computer is infected with malware and offering ‘free’ scanning software, which in fact is the real threat,”
“So beware when following links, even on trusted Web 2.0 platforms like LinkedIn.”
LinkedIn, unlike other networking sites, caters almost exclusively to professionals who are looking to make and maintain their business contacts.
For that reason it has, until now, escaped the sort of unwanted attention that other social networking sites have garnered, such as Facebook and Twitter.
However, the high volumes of traffic on such sites mean that LinkedIn and it’s ilk are likely to become ever more attractive to cyber criminals in the coming years as they offer the ability to upload, distribute or share all manner of malware.
Additionally, the sheer amount of information made available by some users lends itself far too well to identity thieves.
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Is nowhere safe these days?
Everywhere is potentially unsafe but if you employ common sense then the risks ought to be minimal.