Norton Warns People About Eminent Social Media Threats on Friendship Day

Friendship day is coming close and in this day and age Social media become a common platform for friends to connect with each other. This increasing popularity it's form of communication is intensive enough for cyber criminals to find smarter tools to trap ignorant users. Nortan has advised people to be aware of certain online threats that might arise in the wake of Friendship Day 2013 on social media.

Phishing- Norton Cybercrime Report (NCR), 2012, revealed that 83 per cent users in India believe cybercriminals are setting their sight on social networks and 15 per cent users have fallen prey to a scam or fake link on social network platforms. Friendship Day provides cyber goons an opportunity to circulate malicious links to fool innocent digital natives.

Identity Theft- As you befriend acquaintances on social networks, cyber criminals also find myriad opportunities to misuse personal information posted online. With 22 per cent social network users in India reporting that someone has hacked into their profile and pretended to be them, it is imperative for the social media junkies to exercise caution to secure their virtual identity from being misused and accept legitimate friend requests as 37 per cent Indian users accept friend requests from people they do not know.

Cyber Bullying- With teens and children increasingly exploring the Internet through a plethora of gadgets, cyber bullies have found a huge pool of vulnerable users. Cyber bullies leverage technology to rapidly and widely spread messages and content to send text messages, e-mails, instant messages, social networking messages, or post content on blogs, webpages or online game platforms to harass, embarrass, or intimidate others.