There’s no doubt that social media as emerged as a major conduit through which malware is now be distributed across the Internet. What’s nice to see is that the owners of social networking sites are finally starting to do something about it.

The FBI is in the market for a system that can turn data scraped from social media and news sites into useful anti-terrorist and criminal intelligence. It wants information about domestic and global threats displayed on maps "using mash-up technology," according to a "request for information" given to agency vendors last week.

People are becoming more aware not only of the security issues related to social media but also the business models that sustain the providers of these networks. As a result, there is a growing appreciation for just how easily personal data can be misappropriated.

Koobface, the Russian cybergang that can’t shoot straight, soon may be a thing of the past. If the FBI has its way, the gang's penchant for leaving mother Russia to frolic in such places as Monte Carlo may turn out to be its undoing.

According to a new report by Cisco Systems, 70 percent of young professionals frequently ignore IT policies, with one in four the victim of identity theft before the age of 30.

I would love to tell you that social network security issues will decrease in 2012 and be completely eliminated soon after. Of course, in 2004, Bill Gates famously predicted, "Two years from now, spam will be solved." If only ...

Phishing has been one of the banes of e-mail ever since the first e-mail delivery services emerged. Now more than a decade later it looks as though we finally may be witnessing the beginning of a broad-based effort to curtail, if not eliminate, the vast majority of phishing attacks.

A new survey finds wide support in Britain for shutting down Twitter and Facebook during times of civil unrest. Following rioting in August 2011 in which London Police say social media and BlackBerry email were used to organize, the rioters, police want the ability to disable the networks when they feel a need exists to protect the public.