FICORA's CERT-FI information security review 2/2010: Use of Social Network Services Requires Alertness

According to the latest CERT-FI information security review, hoaxes in popular social network services seem to be more successful than for instance those carried out via e-mail. For example Facebook users may, without knowing it, publish a malicious link on their profile site and on their news feed with just one click. The hoax can also be carried out by using the applications of the service or forged software update requests. It is therefore well advised that users are careful when considering the reliability of links.

The DNSSEC security extension for the domain name service provides a powerful protection against forgery of domain names as well against other forms of attack. The introduction of the system helps to ensure that people using the internet are only shown the actual website that they intended to call up. DNSSEC will be introduced in fi-domain names that FICORA maintains in autumn 2010.

With the help of their camera cars, Google has charted not only street views for their Street View service, but also mobile WLAN access points. During this process Google has also recorded message contents protected by the secrecy of communications. The Data Protection Ombudsman is investigating Google's operation in Finland.

Lately, the vulnerability coordination of CERT-FI has been active. During the latest quarter, the results from four processes of fixing and publication that dealt with vulnerability and were coordinated by CERT-FI were published.

CERT-FI publishes a quarterly overview of information security, which deals with the most significant threats to information security. The objective of the reviews is to support companies and organisations in their attempts to improve the management of information security risks. The CERT-FI information security review 2/2010 is available in Finnish on the CERT-FI website at www.cert.fi.

Further information:

Duty officer of CERT-FI, tel. +358 9 6966 510
Ari Husa, Information Security Adviser, tel. +358 40 722 3131