The Social Butterfly

In a world ripe with social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any of the other 550,000 different sites allowing you to connect with people you are already friends with, there is bound to be a shady element. That underworld of exploitation, manipulation, and incredible social aptitude. Wait what?

Welcome to the world of the over-friendly and ‘single-minded' Trojan. Single-minded, as it seems to be inviting people to the site and start networking. A Trojan is a programme that appears to be desirable (like a free downloadable game or screen saver), but contains viruses or worms (self-replicating viruses) that can create havoc with the PC and the network.

However, in the case of these social networking sites, the Trojans that plant themselves on the users' computers and send invites to all mail IDs saved in the contact list, are harmless. The Trojan embeds itself in the user's computer when he/she logs on to a social networking site and sends invites to all listed in the contact list.

The receiver – believing it to be from a genuine friend – accepts the invitations and becomes a member of the social networking site. The sites use this to increase their membership, while hackers use the technique for their phishing attempts.

They do not crash the PC nor the network, an IT specialist with a leading BPO notes. But they sure can mar friendships, relationships or even lead to unwanted and unsolicited networking.

Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) president Rajesh Chharia says, "Even though these programmes only send spam and are quite harmless, at times it can lead to embarrassing situations".

"As most of these social networking sites are used for business networking and friendship, it is not possible for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block these sites. The best option is to put in good firewalls at the user's level," he said.
So the next time you log on to a social networking site, an invitation to join the site has gone to your super boss on your behalf. But without your knowledge!