“Social networks are a significant part of how we communicate with one another. At the same time, the dangers associated with social networking have climbed exponentially,” said Dr. Paul Judge, chief research officer and vice president for Barracuda Networks, which has just released its 2011 Social Networking Security and Privacy Study.

“The fact that nine out of 10 users already have been attacked proves that attackers are taking over social networks and users are living in fear.”

The study focuses on social networking usage, security and privacy, and is based on survey results from hundreds of users representing over 20 countries. The study was conducted over a two-week span between September and October 2011. Overall, users value security and privacy almost equally to popularity and ease of use.

Earlier this year, Barracuda Labs launched Profile Protector, a free service that protects social networking users against malicious threats on Facebook and Twitter.

How about you? Have you had any of your social networks compromised? Personally, I’ve had both my Twitter and my Facebook accounts hacked once each and took security measures to prevent it from happening again (in particular, devising some strong passwords not used for anything else).

Major highlights from the study are included below.

Social Networking Usage

• LinkedIn is the most accepted social network by businesses with only 20 percent of companies blocking or limiting its usage, as compared to 31 percent of companies that block or limit Facebook.

Social Networking Security

• Nine out of 10 people have received spam, and one in four have received a virus or malware, on a social network.

Social Networking Privacy

• One in five people has been negatively affected by information that was exposed on a social network.

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Related Stories:

• How to recognize fake Facebook “friends” with bad intentions (infographic)
• Social networks pose security risks, many firms blocking them
• Social networking sites hit a third of SMBs with malware
• Atlanta-based Purewire acquired by Barracuda Networks
• Number of time people spend on social networks doubled

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Tags: Barracuda Labs, Barracuda Networks, free profile protector, nine of ten people hacked on social networks, one of five people damaged by privacy lapse on social networks, social networks lax on security & privacy