Spammers already swarming Google Buzz

Google Buzz

Google's latest social networking attempt has come under even more scrutiny today, with an internet security firm claiming it has already been infiltrated with spam.

A blog post from Websense has claimed a spammer, touting a free web hosting service for quitting smoking, is already following 237 people on Google Buzz - which was only launched on Tuesday last week.

The blog said: "When Twitter was launched, it took a while before it was used to send spam and other malicious messages. In this case, it only took two days."

It added: "It's clear that the bad guys have learned from their experience using social networks to distribute these type of messages."

Google has been under increasing pressure to address privacy issues with Buzz from the day it was launched, and now it seems questions about its security will have to be answered too.

"We hope that Google is geared up for dealing with the volume of spam it's bound to see on the new service," the blog post added.

"Until then, we advise users to be careful, as usual, when clicking on unknown links."

IT PRO contacted Google for comment but the company had yet to respond to our request at the time of publication.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.