• CNBC.com et all., Tuesday, February 2, 2010 2:57 PM

It looks like Facebook poses an even greater threat than wasted man-hours to businesses. A new report from security firm Sophos found a 70% jump in spam and malware attacks via social networking sites last year, with Facebook leading the way.

Among 500 companies, the Sophos report found that over 50% were spammed through a social-networking site, and that 36% were affected by malware.

"The danger to businesses from social-networking malware is especially high," notes CNet. "Most of the companies surveyed expressed concern that the actions of their employees on a site like Facebook could put sensitive corporate data at risk."

Along with users, Sophos faults social-networking sites themselves for the security issue, while the failure is hardly malicious.

"The truth is that the security team at Facebook works hard to counter threats on their site -- it's just that policing 350 million users can't be an easy job for anyone," says Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "But there is no doubt that simple changes could make Facebook users safer."

USA Today's Technology Live blog seconds Cluley's reasoning saying that, "As the planet's largest social network, Facebook might naturally be expected to emerge as the No. 1 target of cybercriminals."

Still, according to Cluley, "Facebook has exacerbated matters by asking its members to embrace a new, more granular privacy setting," Technology Live notes.

"Unfortunately," according to ReadWriteWeb, "for those in charge of enforcing corporate security, simply blocking Facebook and other social networks via URL is not a realistic solution anymore ... The networks are often a large part of a company's marketing and sales strategies."

One solution is using a unified approach for mitigating threats, which combines data monitoring, malware protection and granular access for employees.

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