September 6, 2010 by Mark Isle
Research by the security firm Sophos has revealed that Apple’s Ping site has already been targeted by hoards of spammers seeking to trick members in to revealing personal details. Even though the site was only launched on Wednesday, it has already been targeted by a deluge of spam. Apple’s new music-focussed network appears to have failed to filter out any activity by spammers.
The spokesperson from Sophos commented on their blog: ‘Spammers have taken aim at social networks and blog comment sections aggressively for some time, but apparently Apple didn’t consider this when designing Ping, as the service implements no spam or URL filtering.’
‘Our tests show that Apple is filtering profanity, and approving profile photos before posting them. But there appears to be no barrier to spam or malware. About a third of comments on prominent accounts, like those of Lady Gaga and U2, are spam. At this point I have not seen anything malicious.’
Despite the lack of filtering on spam comments and posts, Sophos has stated that a number of security issues have been fixed on the new iTunes 10 software, and suggested that people upgrade to benefit from the enhancements. Spam on Ping has so far been predominantly focussed upon people trying to elicit mobile numbers from members. The most common types have been adverts offering people free iPhones or iPads for filling out surveys on the site. As up to 95% of posts generated by users online tend to be spam, filtering on sites is becoming increasingly common.
Ping is not in itself an ideal host for spam activities, as it doesn’t use URL links and isn’t searched by the principal engines, meaning that most spammers will not bother to target the site. Sophos recommends that people do not give out there mobile numbers on online surveys, as they risk handing over enough information to enable malicious web users to set up charges on mobiles and generate illicit profit.
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