1: MySpace Banner Malware
In early 2008, the threats posed by social networks were foretold by a malware-laden banner ad that plagued MySpace and infected its users.
2: Mi6 Official Exposed
The new head of Britian’s Mi6 espionage agency saw his personal life exposed all over the internet when it was discovered his wife had a Facebook profile that she failed to mark ‘private.’ There’s nothing like swim trunk pictures to give baddies some leverage.
3: Guy Kawasaki Twitter Escapade
When the Titter account owned by Silicon venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki was hijacked by hackers last year, they were able to use it to send Tweets linked to malware to his impressive roster of 140,000 followers.
4: Britney and Barack Hack Attack
Last year, the same French guy hacked the Twitter accounts of two extremes on the American fame spectrum: Britney Spears and President Barack Obama. The weak link in both accounts was an easy-to-guess answer to the ‘secret’ question posed by the Twitter authentication process.
5: Parliament in Peril
UK Parliament member Michael Fabricant suffered a Facebook hack that not only took over his account, but was then used to attack his Facebook friends as well.
6: Google Stung Over Buzz Privacy Flaws
Google had to wipe egg off its face earlier this year when users revolted over its lax privacy policies for its new Google Buzz social net, which automatically connected users based on how they used other Google Apps.
7: Mobile App Madness
A glitch in the way AT&T’s server software worked earlier in the year allowed mobile Facebook users to log into other user accounts until AT&T fixed the flaw.