The Dark Side of Web 2.0

Social networking sites have increased in popularity and are utilized for many purposes which include connecting with other people, sharing information and creating content. Many people on social networking sites use these platforms to express opinions relating to current affairs within society. People do not realize the value of their data divulged on these platforms and the tactics implemented by social engineers to harvest the seemingly worthless data. An attack vector is created when a user can be profiled using responses from one of these platforms and the data combined with leaked information from another platform. This paper discusses methods for how this data, with no significant value to the users, can become a commodity to social engineers. This paper addresses what information can be deducted from responses on social news sites, as well as investigating how this information can be useful to social engineers.