Security

Our assigned articles on security concerns and Web 2.0 technologies left many unanswered questions about what I should be doing to protect myself as a user of Web 2.0 technologies. For example the article Top 10 Web 2.0 Attack Vectors seemed to be geared toward IT professionals that would be creating Web 2.0 sites or computer security systems in organizations rather than your average user. I haven't taken classes yet in AJAX web development or XML for instance so it was difficult to fully understand the descriptions of the Web 2.0 attacks.

I did do some researching on my own and I found some interesting articles on security and specific Web 2.0 applications:

• Blog feeds may carry security risk - CNET News

• When Widgets Attack

• Social Bookmarking and Malicious Websites - Malicious Code - STN Peer-to-Peer Discussion Forums

• How to protect against Web 2.0 threats - SC Magazine US

The article How to protect against Web 2.0 threats made a very important point:

Web 2.0 sites are, by definition, more open than traditional sites. The hundreds of thousands of users contributing content to Web 2.0 sites make it easy for malware authors to hide and insert malware on dynamically generated Web 2.0 pages.

These articles finally convinced me to install the Web of Trust software that was suggested at the beginning of the class. However, these articles are still geared toward an IT professional and not an average user. Also the articles I found were all written in 2006. I'm not sure what to make of that. Was that because it was a hot topic at the time? Has there been a greater awareness of security dangers of Web 2.0 technology and has that technology improved on it's security since then?

Other than the Web of Trust software I don't have any specific advice beyond the conventional advice given for internet security - updated antivirus protection, avoiding phishing scams, etc..What to suggest for your average user is unclear to me.