Web 2.0 Environs Are Now Hackers' Favorite Target

Web 2.0 sites are now the premier target for hackers, amounting to 21 percent of all reported hacking incidents, according to a report issued yesterday.

The study by the Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum, an organization devoted to the secure use of social media at work, says that Web 2.0 sites are now attacked more frequently than sites operated by the media (18 percent) and retail businesses (13 percent).

"As the business world becomes more accustomed to the use of social media, it is quite predictable that some will try to exploit these tools," said security expert Ofer Shezaf, who authored the report. "Yet the methods and vulnerabilities hackers will target are quite difficult to predict and neutralize."

The most popular attack vectors exploiting Web 2.0 features are SQL injection (21 percent of attacks) and authentication abuse (18 percent), the report says. Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) currently ranks as the sixth most popular attack vector (8 percent), but it is growing fast, the study states.

Leakage of sensitive information remains the most common outcome of Web hacks (29 percent), though disinformation is also a problem (26 percent), mostly due to the hacking of online identities of celebrities, the report states.

Social networks, wikis, and community blogging services and sites are the most popular targets for Web 2.0 hackers, the report states.

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