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Tuesday, December 26 2006 @ 11:13 PM Central Standard Time
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MySpace prides itself for being a “place for friends.”
Its users have grown rapidly because the site is easy to use.
According to comScore Media Metrix, MySpace overtook Yahoo, Inc. in U.S. page views last month with a record registering at 38.7 billion.
It offers users a “host of communication tools which makes it easy to send messages to one person or a whole list of friends”. It allows users to make their personalized profiles with their favorite video or music, or even photos.
Unfortunately, though, the same communication tools are being used by ID thieves who disguise themselves as on-line friends, enticing would-be victims to disclose passwords to avail of sex oriented sites, filling mailboxes with spam messages, and other imaginable means to gain the trust of MySpace users who would later on be robbed of their identities.
There are programmers who take advantage of some features of MySpace which includes “friendly request” to users to add them to the list of friends on the web. Once MySpace users agree to it, the thief will post false profiles of women whom users may download.
If the phony profile loads, a blue screen appears saying the profile is protected by “MySpace Adult Content Viewer.” That is the time when trusting viewers get “a worm that installs adware on their computers.”
Owners of MySpace, News Corp., Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate, said that managing the attacks of digital prowlers is one great challenge for them. When News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million last year, it was aware of the security threat and on line fraud. This is the reason why the company is stepping up security measures according to Hemanshu Nigam, its chief security officer.
“Security is a top priority because it’s critical for our community of users and for our business partners”, said Nigam. He added that if its advertisers feel insecure on our site, revenues are eventually lost.
Under Nigam’s supervision, the company organized Content Assurance Team. The members of the team pretend to be clueless adults or teens by posting phony profiles which are aimed at tracking every ID thieves like sexual predators, spammers, and the like.
The company expands its team of software engineers, lawyers and other experts to monitor digital prowlers, teach users to fend attacks and run after these offenders. But should every effort fails, the company files civil suits and enhances cooperation with law enforcement officials.
Ma. Roma C. Agsalud
http://seo.xon.us |
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