Computer security firm Sophos warned the Facebook users on their usage of online messaging services. It is being found that such uses of the social networking site are now more vulnerable to identity theft by cybercriminals.
A serious vulnerability in Facebook's security allows anybody who has your mobile phone number to not only change status messages, but also add or delete friends, send out private messages to other users and upload or change profile pictures. However, the security flaw only affects those who have activated Facebook Mobile, a facility that allows the user to send updates on the social networking site through text messages from a mobile phone."Users need to realize that these new features increase the attack surface on the Facebook platform, and make personal accounts all the more alluring for cybercriminals to break into," said Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley.Facebook's new messaging system was launched on Monday and includes facebook.com email addresses. Approximately 350 million of Facebook's more than 500 million members fire off messages using its existing service, with more than four billion digital missives sent daily.
Sophos noted that fraudsters are increasingly using hacked Facebook accounts to send spam messages compared with traditional emails because they are more likely to be opened by recipients lured to think the messages came from friends. Sophos also urged the users to be aware of the security risks before signing up for Facebook's next-generation online messaging service that blends online chat, text messages and other real-time conversation tools with traditional email.
