Microsoft: Watch out for Web 2.0's 'Kobe Bryant' moment

IDG News Service - Privacy may soon become a much bigger deal to the Web 2.0 world.

That's because Web 2.0's ability to mash up components from different Web sites into one customized user experience can also lead to a disconnect between the privacy users expect and the privacy they actually receive, according to Jonathan Pincus, general manager of strategy development at Microsoft Corp.'s Online Services Group.

"In the Web 2.0 world, one of the really interesting changes is [that] privacy becomes as important an issue as security because there's so much more information out there and the lines of sharing it get so much blurrier," he said in a recent interview. "People usually assume there are a lot more privacy guarantees then there actually are."

Pincus predicted that this misplaced sense of privacy may ultimately be exposed in the most prominent of public policy forums: the tabloid press.

"At some point soon, there's going to be some kind of major court case or high-profile divorce in which some kind of information from a social networking site gets used as a key piece of evidence," he said. "Sort of like what happened with Kobe Bryant and the phone records being available. People were kind of surprised, 'Oh they can get at the phone information?' Stuff like that gives people a very different viewpoint on privacy."

In 2004, a judge granted Bryant's lawyers access to text message records of a woman who had accused the Los Angeles Lakers basketball star of rape. The charges against Bryant were later dropped.

Microsoft has been trying to promote itself as a leader in the online privacy arena in recent months. Yesterday, the company released data showing that attackers are increasingly targeting personal information.

In the first six months of 2007, Microsoft counted 31.6 million phishing scams, a jump of 150% from the previous six months. The company's "Security Intelligence Report" also tracked a 500% increase in Trojan horse downloaders, which are malicious programs used to install other malware on victim's systems.

"As the security of the operating system improves, we are seeing cybercriminals becoming more sophisticated, diverse and targeted in their methods of stealing personal information," Microsoft said in a statement on the report. "Personal information is the currency of crime, and malicious attackers are targeting it to make their cyberattacks and other scams more authentic, credible and successful, and to make a profit."

However, one security researcher said that phishers may now be moving beyond ID theft and looking to even more lucrative areas, such as pump-and-dump stock scams. In these scams, criminals flood in-boxes with e-mails promoting penny stocks and then sell shares when the stock price rises.