Faking Out Social Network Systems

from the there's-always-an-angle dept

It's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of many of these social networking services. I have nothing against them, I just don't see how they'll ever make much money - because they're mostly based on two ideas that have trouble standing up to scrutiny: (a) people with rich social networks have no problem subsidizing those with weak networks and (b) you can easily define relationships in a binary way. However, I hadn't even considered other issues with social networks, such as the ability to use them for questionable purposes. For example, this article, which focuses on the security weaknesses of some of these sites briefly mentions a very sneaky use of such a system: virtual identity theft. For example, you create a profile at LinkedIn, pretending to work at a competitor. Then, you sit back and intercept any messages that are intended to go that competitor and use them for your own business instead. Of course, in this case it depends on others in your network not noting that you're lying, but the number of people I've heard of using Linked in who have made connections with people they barely know makes this completely plausible.

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