CHAPTER
1
1
INFORMATION IN THIS CHAPTER
• BringingtheSocialNetworkstoTheirKnees
• SavingtheSocialNetworksandOurselves
Social Networking
Infrastructure Attacks
Social networks today host millions of users. The services offered by social networks
vary from basic communications to applications that can help you on a daily basis.
Keep in mind that the traffic on these sites is considered legitimate traffic.
All of this has created the perfect storm for attackers. They now have a platform
that if they can compromise, it will provide access to millions of victims. It also
allows them to hide their tracks within legitimate traffic streams. Oh yeah, we can’t
forget that it becomes more difficult to shut down a social network than it does a
single user. So, we have to rely on the social networks to protect themselves from
attacks, thus protecting us.
BRINGING THE SOCIAL NETWORKS TO THEIR KNEES
It was just a normal day in August 2009. You got up for work, drank your coffee or
whatever your caffeine fix is, took Rover for a walk, and got ready for work, nothing
out of the ordinary. The same type of morning you’ve had for the past 15 years. Then,
you decided, “Let’s check my Twitter account.” You go to the Web site to log in, and
you are presented with a page like Figure 1.1.
“Twitter is down!!!!!!!!!” you scream. You think, “How can this happen? Is it the
end of the world?” The truth is that it isn’t the end of the world, and actually all that
has happened is Twitter, Facebook, and a handful of other social networking sites all
fell victim to a cyber attack.
People have grown to rely on social networks for everyday life. They are not only
checking and posting to these accounts from their home PCs but also posting from
their work PCs and their cell phones. However, it is not only people are relying on
these networks but corporations have taken an interest as well. Corporations are now
剩余129页未读，继续阅读
资源评论
