Facebook spamming 'not surprising'

It is 'not surprising' that cybercriminals have begun using Facebook to send out spam, according to security firm Sophos.

Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at the company, said that Facebook 'has sky rocketed in importance and everyone loves it', which means cybercriminals will enjoy it too. 'Spammers and hackers basically follow the trend, so it is not surprising at all that they are attacking Facebook and using Facebook to send out spam,' she said.

However, Ms Theriault revealed that users of the social networking site can protect themselves from attack. 'One of the main ways that you can try and combat this and work at this is by setting your [configuration] options,' she said.