Social Networking Security

Adam C. Champion and Dong XuanCSE 4471: Information Security

Outline

• Overview of Social Networking– On-line Social Networking–Mobile Social Networking

• Threats and Attacks• Defense Measures

Online Social Networking (OSN)

• Online Web services enabling people to connect with each other, share information– Common friends, interests, personal info, …– Post photos, videos, etc. for others to see– Communicate via email, instant message, etc.

• Major OSN services: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.

“Giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

OSN Popularity

• Over 900 million Facebook users worldwide [6]– Over 150 million in U.S. [5]– Over 450 million access via mobile [6]– 300 million pictures uploaded to Facebook daily [6]

• Over 140 million Twitter users; over 340 million Tweets sent daily [7]

• Over 175 million LinkedIn members in over 200 countries [8]

Benefits of OSN Communication• Vast majority of college students use OSNs– Organizations want to market products, services, etc.

to this demographic– OSNs can help them reach these potential buyers

• OSNs provide communal forum for expression (self, group, mass), collaboration, etc.– Connect with old friends, find new friends and connect– Play games with friends, e.g., Candy Crush– Commerce in “virtual items”

• But using OSNs poses security issues for orgs as well as individuals

Mobile Social Networking

• E-SmallTalker

• E-Shadow

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Application Scenario: Conference

Background: Small Talk

• People come into contact opportunistically• Face-to-face interaction– Crucial to people's social networking – Immediate non-verbal communication– Helps people get to know each other – Provides the best opportunity to expand social network

• Small talk is an important social lubricant– Difficult to identify significant topics– Superficial

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Naive Approach: Smartphone-based Small Talk

• Store all user information, including each user’s full contact list

• Users report either their own geo-location or a collection of physically nearby phone IDs to the server using Internet connection or SMS

• Server performs profile matching, determines small talk topics (mutual contact, common interests, etc.)

• Results are pushed to or retrieved by users

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However……

• Require costly data services (phone’s internet connection, SMS)

• Require reporting and storing sensitive personal information on third-party servers

• Trusted server may not exist!• Centralized servers are bottlenecks, single point of

failures, targets of attack

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E-SmallTalker: A Fully Distributed Approach

• No Internet connection required• No trusted third party• No centralized server

• Information stored locally on mobile phones• Original personal data never leaves a user’s phone• Communication only happens in physical proximity

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E-Shadow

• Enhanced E-SmallTalker– Local profiles–Mobile phone based local social interaction tools• E-Shadow publishing• E-Shadow localization

Outline

• Overview of Social Networking• Threats and Attacks• Defense Measures

OSN Security Threats/Attacks• Malware distribution• Cyber harassment, stalking, etc.• Information “shelf life” in cyberspace• Privacy issues:– Information about person posted by him/herself, others– Information about people collected by OSNs

• Information posted on OSNs impacts unemployment, insurance, etc.

• Organizations’ concerns: brand, laws, regulations

MSN Security Threat/Attacks

• Personal information leakage– Particularly dangerous because of physical proximity

• Malware distribution

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Outline

• Overview of Social Networking• Threats and Attacks• Defense Measures

“Common Sense” Measures (1)

• Use strong, unique passwords• Provide minimal personal information: avoid entering

birthdate, address, etc.• Review privacy settings, set to “maximum privacy”

– “Friends of friends” includes far more people than “friends only”• Exercise discretion about posted material:

– Pictures, videos, etc.– Opinions on controversial issues– Anything involving coworkers, bosses, classmates, professors– Anything related to employer (unless authorized to do so)

• Be wary of third party apps, ads, etc. (P.T. Barnum’s quote)• Supervise children’s OSN activity

“Common Sense” Measures (2)• “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”• Use browser security tools for protection:– Anti-phishing filters (Chrome, Firefox)– Web of Trust (crowdsourced website trust)– AdBlock/NoScript/Do-Not-Track Plus

• Personal reputation management:– Search for yourself online, look at the results…– Google Alerts: emails sent daily to you about results for any

search query (free), e.g., your name• Extreme cases:– Cease using OSNs, delete accounts– Contact law enforcement re. relentless online harassment

E-SmallTalker: Privacy-Preserved Information Exchange

n Example of Alice’s Bloom filtern Alice has multiple contacts,

such as Bob, Tom, etc.n Encode contact strings,

Firstname.lastname@phone_number, such as “Bob.Johnson@5555555555” and “Tom.Mattix@6141234567”

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E-Shadow: Layered Publishing• Spatial Layering– WiFi SSID

• At least 40–50 meters, 32 bytes– Bluetooth Device (BTD) Name

• 20 meters, 2,000 bytes– Bluetooth Service (BTS) Name

• 10 meters, 1,000 bytes

• Temporal Layering– For people lingering together long or repeatedly– Erasure code

Final Remarks

• Online social networking systems very popular; mobile social networking systems emerging

• Malware distribution, personal info. leakage: the two most prominent threats and attacks

• Personal countermeasures are most effective

References (1)1. G. Bahadur, J. Inasi, and A. de Carvalho, Securing the Clicks: Network Security in the Age of

Social Media, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2012.2. H. Townsend, 4 Jun. 2010, http://www.k-state.edu/its/security/training/roundtables/

presentations/SIRT_roundtable-RisksofSocialNetworking-Jun10.ppt3. U.S. Dept. of State, “Social Networking Cyber Security Awareness Briefing,” http://

www.slideshare.net/DepartmentofDefense/social-media-cyber-security-awareness-briefing4. National Security Agency, “Social Networking Sites,”

http://www.nsa.gov/ia/_files/factsheets/I73-021R-2009.pdf5. Consumer Reports, Jun. 2012, http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/06/

facebook-your-privacy/index.htm6. S. Sengupta, 14 May 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/technology/facebook-needs-

to-turn-data-trove-into-investor-gold.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all7. T. Wasserman, 21 Mar. 2012, http://mashable.com/2012/03/21/twitter-has-140-million-users/8. LinkedIn Corp., 2012, http://press.linkedin.com/about9. R. Richmond, “Web Gang Operating in the Open,” 16 Jan. 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/

2012/01/17/technology/koobface-gang-that-used-facebook-to-spread-worm-operates-in-the-open.html?_r=1

References (2)10. J. Drömer and D. Kollberg, “The Koobface malware gang – exposed!”, 2012,

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/koobface/11. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Megan_Meier12. M. Schwartz, “The Trolls Among Us,” 3 Aug. 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/

magazine/03trolls-t.html?pagewanted=all13. M. Raymond, “How Tweet It Is!: Library Acquires Entire Twitter Archive,” 14 Apr. 2010,

http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/04/how-tweet-it-is-library-acquires-entire-twitter-archive/14. B. Borsboom, B. van Amstel, and F. Groeneveld, “Please Rob Me”, http://pleaserobme.com15. D. Love, “13 People Who Got Fired for Tweeting,” 16 May 2011,

http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-fired-2011-5?op=116. C. Smith and C. Kanalley, “Fired Over Facebook: 13 Posts That Got People Canned,”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/26/fired-over-facebook-posts_n_659170.html17. https://twitter.com/BPglobalPR18. http://curl.haxx.se/19. http://jonathonhill.net/2012-05-18/unshorten-urls-with-php-and-curl/20. http://www.securingsocialmedia.com/resources/