Mobile ransomware, work-at-home fraud and horrid videos could claim new victims

Studies in the last year on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter allowed Bitdefender security researchers to forecast future trends. While the main threat seems to be targeting individuals using social media, growing corporate adoption of Bring Your Own Device policies means that they could also spell disaster for an entire company.

As per Bitdefender’s analysis, these are the top five social media threat predictions to look out for in 2015:

1. Mobile ransomware could hit social networks

Although the takedown of the Zeus botnet in June this year threw a wet blanket on Cryptolocker, variants of the e-threat found their way onto new platforms. Users should remain sceptical of any message accusing them of various crimes such as zoophilic behaviour and distributing child pornography. These threats may be part of ransomware campaigns and could also hit social networks.

2. Trojans hiding behind horrid videos on the rise

Malicious links hidden in atrocious Facebook videos will be on the rise in 2015, Bitdefender warns. A two-year study by the antivirus software provider recently revealed such videos account for almost one per cent of all social media scams. Malicious ‘beheading and murder’ videos are expected to multiply in the following year. Behaviour analysts and psychologists say teenagers are the most susceptible to clicking on shocking videos, as their empathy for victims of violence is lower.

3. Work-at-home scams to claim more victims

LinkedIn will be hit by a higher number of ‘work-at-home’ scams luring job-seekers with promises of huge salaries for almost no effort. With the career market moving into the virtual world, such social engineering attacks will claim more victims in 2015. Users are advised to watch out for poorly completed profiles and dubious recruiters on LinkedIn.

4. Popular searches will make for popular scams

Bitdefender also warns of popular Google searches. Besides typical SEO poisoning, cyber-criminals will also use social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to spread scams based on search interest.

“Google’s recent list of top searches coincided with some of the most popular scams this year, indicating this trend is well and truly alive,” states Catalin Cosoi, Chief Security Strategist at Bitdefender. “In 2013 people just wanted to know how to twerk, however, this year brought more interest in topics such as Ebola, Robin William’s death, the World Cup and Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Scammers used all of these searches to target high numbers of victims on Facebook, Twitter and via traditional e-mail spam.”

Celebrity deaths tend to dominate Google's year-end list too, and Bitdefender predicts scammers will continue to exploit the names of any deceased celebrity.

5. Malvertising on social networks

Malvertising is on the rise, with almost one in three ad networks serving this repackaged e-threat, according to Bitdefender research. Facebook’s ad platform also hosts fraudulent and malicious ads from web categories that seem to copy spam patterns. In 2015, users should be cautious of malvertising, as it will become more than simple click-fraud.

Bitdefender advises users to keep in mind both old and new e-threats that might interfere with their social media experience in 2015. Users should also keep their security solutions updated on all internet-connected devices, avoid signing in from unsecure hotspots and report all suspicious social media activities.