Media Release
7 December 2009
SOPHOS AUSTRALIA FACEBOOK ID PROBE 2009
Sophos, the world leading security and data protection firm, has just released the results of its 2009
Facebook ID Probe.
Sophos created two fictitious Australian users with names based on anagrams of the words "false
identity" and "stolen identity". 21-year-old Daisy was represented by a picture of a toy duck from a $2
shop; 56-year-old Dinette had a picture of two cats. Each sent out 100 friend requests.
Within two weeks, a total of 87 strangers had agreed to be friends with Daisy and Dinette. This is exactly
the same disturbingly high response rate as when Sophos first performed this experiment in England
two years ago. Worse still, in the 2009 probe, Daisy and Dinette ended up with a total of 95 friends --
eight Facebookers befriended Dinette without even being asked.
"We assumed things would be better in 2009 but the situation is worse. This really is a wake-up call,"
said Paul Ducklin, Head of Technology, Asia Pacific at Sophos in Sydney. "Our honeymoon period with
social networking sites ought to be over by now -- but many users still have a 'couldn't care less' attitude
to their personal data."
98% of the 20-somethings and 92% of the 50-somethings who befriended Daisy and Dinette also gave
away their birthday. A minority suppressed their year of birth, but this is often easy to calculate or to
guess from other information given out. Even worse, just under half of the 20-ish crowd, and just under
a third of the 50-ish crowd, gave away details about their friends and family.
"People aren't just handing over their own life story to cybercrooks," warned Ducklin. "They're betraying
people close to them, too, by helping those cybercrooks build up a detailed picture of their life and their
milieu. This is an identity scammer's dream."
Sophos is calling on users of social networking sites to think much more strictly about what it means to
accept someone as your friend. "We're not trying to be wowsers," explains Ducklin. "We just want you
to be much more circumspect about whom you choose to trust on-line."
Full details of the 2009 ID Probe (with 'pictures' of Daisy and Dinette) can be found at:
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Media Contact
Corrie McLeod
Espresso Communications
Mob: 0419 526 848
Email: corrie@espressocomms.com.a
About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's
network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated
defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage
and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly
150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of
customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry
awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
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