(FORBES)This installment of Facebook follies will focus on practical advice for social networkers: 1. Don't befriend your sketchy nei...
1. Don't befriend your sketchy neighbor on Facebook. A man in the UK exploited the lame state of security questions to hack into his neighbors' bank accounts and steal from them. Iain Wood, 33, figured out friends and neighbors' bank account usernames -- perhaps the same as their email addresses? -- and then claimed to have forgotten the password. The banks asked security questions -- you know these: what's your pet's name? what's your best friend's name? what street do you live on? -- and Wood was able to answer them based on information he had dug up from their social networking accounts. He then broke into the accounts to get direct access to their money. His scheme was a bit more elaborate than that of the 23-year-old Californian who broke into women's email accounts to try to find nude photos of them. Wood says he would spend up to 18 hours a day going through people's profiles to find the information he needed to crack their accounts, reports the Telegraph. He stole over $55,000 over two years.
Remember, it's okay to defriend someone if they seem like the hacking type. And don't post information about your mother's maiden name if you can help it. Moving forward, for many of us, "social engineering hacking" may be a bigger concern than the more tech-savvy variety.
2. Don't make your Facebook events open to anyone who wants to come. New Yorkers, be aware that the NYPD have started patrolling the mean streets of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. A new unit in the Community Affairs Bureau will "mine social media, looking for info about troublesome house parties, gang showdowns and other potential mayhem," according to the New York Daily News. The police commissioner has specifically asked officers to keep track of parties that are advertised online, as they could get out of hand should they go viral. So party carefully, folks.
3. If you go on a looting spree during a week of riots, don't post the bounty in a photo on Facebook. That's what this dude did in London. It's wise that cops are getting on the digital beat, because crooks are often pretty revealing online. Even if your privacy settings are high enough that digital detectives can't see your booty, your crime-hating friends might rat you out. A 23-year-old Arizonan was charged with burglary this month after he robbed a fire department. He got burned by a Facebook friend, who called the police after he posted a photo of himself wearing a stolen fireman's helmet.
4. Finally, don't kid around about wanting to hire a hitman to kill somebody, because they could actually end up dead. We mentioned the case of London Eley as aprevious folly. Eley, 20, posted a Facebook status message about being willing to "pay a stack" to someone to "kill her baby daddy." Timothy Bynum said he would take her up on the offer asking, "where he be at" and saying "i need that stack first." The baby daddy, Corey White, alerted police who arrested and charged Bynum and Eley. They went before a judge on Monday, who upheld the charges against them. Hours later, White was shot and killed. Though Eley and Bynum both said that they were not serious about their postings -- and were both in jail at the time of the shooting -- their prosecutions for murder solicitation and murder conspiracy, respectively, surely aren't helped by this.
Remember, it's okay to defriend someone if they seem like the hacking type. And don't post information about your mother's maiden name if you can help it. Moving forward, for many of us, "social engineering hacking" may be a bigger concern than the more tech-savvy variety.
2. Don't make your Facebook events open to anyone who wants to come. New Yorkers, be aware that the NYPD have started patrolling the mean streets of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. A new unit in the Community Affairs Bureau will "mine social media, looking for info about troublesome house parties, gang showdowns and other potential mayhem," according to the New York Daily News. The police commissioner has specifically asked officers to keep track of parties that are advertised online, as they could get out of hand should they go viral. So party carefully, folks.
3. If you go on a looting spree during a week of riots, don't post the bounty in a photo on Facebook. That's what this dude did in London. It's wise that cops are getting on the digital beat, because crooks are often pretty revealing online. Even if your privacy settings are high enough that digital detectives can't see your booty, your crime-hating friends might rat you out. A 23-year-old Arizonan was charged with burglary this month after he robbed a fire department. He got burned by a Facebook friend, who called the police after he posted a photo of himself wearing a stolen fireman's helmet.
4. Finally, don't kid around about wanting to hire a hitman to kill somebody, because they could actually end up dead. We mentioned the case of London Eley as aprevious folly. Eley, 20, posted a Facebook status message about being willing to "pay a stack" to someone to "kill her baby daddy." Timothy Bynum said he would take her up on the offer asking, "where he be at" and saying "i need that stack first." The baby daddy, Corey White, alerted police who arrested and charged Bynum and Eley. They went before a judge on Monday, who upheld the charges against them. Hours later, White was shot and killed. Though Eley and Bynum both said that they were not serious about their postings -- and were both in jail at the time of the shooting -- their prosecutions for murder solicitation and murder conspiracy, respectively, surely aren't helped by this.
(ALLFACEBOOK)Facebook is full of people who overconfide so much that I often tremble in my stilettos. People are effectively shouting things over megaphones, making me scratch my weave in wonderment about their IQ!
Are you guilty of committing any of these Facebook faux pas?
1. Revealing Your Complete Birth Date
Why would anyone give out their complete date of birth in a public setting?
Unless you are 25 years young and under, why in the world would you really want anyone to get why you sing along to elevator music, or why you no longer think of the speed limit as a challenge?
According to money experts, giving away your complete date of birth is just what an identify thief is looking for as he or she carefully pieces your profile together for the next big caper.
If you look forward to those countless birthday well wishes, just supply your month, date of birth and exclude the year.
2. Announcing You’re Away
You might as well swing open your front door and hang a sign out front that says “Gone fishin’” when you let folks know that you are away on vacation.
Robbers come in all shapes, colors, sexes and are from all walks of life, and they could well be masquerading behind fake aliases on Facebook.
So brag about your fabu vacation after you’ve turned that key in your front door and sighed, “It’s good to be back home.”
3. Using An Obvious Password
Why use a Facebook password that any simpleton can figure out?
Try to avoid common words and names when figuring out a password for your account, opt instead for a mix of upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers.
Here’s a tip: Throw in symbols and numbers in the middle of a word to throw those pain-in-the-booty hackers off their game.
4. Overlooking Privacy controls
Privacy controls are so overlooked that I wince at the thought of those who don’t even attempt to at least play with them.
The powers-that-be at Facebook have placed this powerful tool in your little hands so that you can keep certain contacs from looking at the things you simply don’t want them to see.
You can take your Facebook wand and restrict folks from viewing photos, personal information and even your wall postings.
Click your heels, wave your magic wand and finesse your privacy settings per friend or groups of friends, then breathe a little easier, when you want to let er rip about the day you had at work because your work friends won’t be able to read what you’ve posted.
5. Not Thinking Before You Post
Law enforcement officials, employers, and even insurers are snooping Facebook pages trying to scrounge up the goods on you.
So, don’t post anything that could land you in jail, get you fired from a job or have an insurer cancel your life insurance policy for supplying them with false info about your at-risk lifestyle.
One study done in 2009 by the internet security firm Proofpoint estimated that 8 percent of companies fired someone for “misuse” of social media.
And we have every reason to believe this will increase over time — don’t let yourself be part of these statistics!
6. Failing To Use The Private Message Feature
Why would you invite certain people to your son Noah’s bar mitzsvah publicly on your wall? Talk about a tacky move!
Use your private message feature to communicate with those selected few about upcoming events or for conversations that are just not meant for all to survey.
7. Mentioning The Names Of Your Kids Under 13
Is it really necessary to mention your children by name to a network of perhaps 12 real friends and 443 extended ”I don’t really know those folks but I friended them anyway” on your Facebook page?
Parents need to know that on the social web, safety is a shared responsibility Facebook between users and the site.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of undesirables like predators and kidnappers, who may have, or can gain access to your information and a user’s safety depends on the user as much as on the site.
Do you really want these creeps to know your children Howie and Prudence’s names, or to know, where they go to school?
Giving your children privacy is an unwritten commonsense Facebook parental rule! Follow it!
Readers, how often do you see people making these mistakes on Facebook? are you careful about how you use Facebook?
Are you guilty of committing any of these Facebook faux pas?
1. Revealing Your Complete Birth Date
Why would anyone give out their complete date of birth in a public setting?
Unless you are 25 years young and under, why in the world would you really want anyone to get why you sing along to elevator music, or why you no longer think of the speed limit as a challenge?
According to money experts, giving away your complete date of birth is just what an identify thief is looking for as he or she carefully pieces your profile together for the next big caper.
If you look forward to those countless birthday well wishes, just supply your month, date of birth and exclude the year.
2. Announcing You’re Away
You might as well swing open your front door and hang a sign out front that says “Gone fishin’” when you let folks know that you are away on vacation.
Robbers come in all shapes, colors, sexes and are from all walks of life, and they could well be masquerading behind fake aliases on Facebook.
So brag about your fabu vacation after you’ve turned that key in your front door and sighed, “It’s good to be back home.”
3. Using An Obvious Password
Why use a Facebook password that any simpleton can figure out?
Try to avoid common words and names when figuring out a password for your account, opt instead for a mix of upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers.
Here’s a tip: Throw in symbols and numbers in the middle of a word to throw those pain-in-the-booty hackers off their game.
4. Overlooking Privacy controls
Privacy controls are so overlooked that I wince at the thought of those who don’t even attempt to at least play with them.
The powers-that-be at Facebook have placed this powerful tool in your little hands so that you can keep certain contacs from looking at the things you simply don’t want them to see.
You can take your Facebook wand and restrict folks from viewing photos, personal information and even your wall postings.
Click your heels, wave your magic wand and finesse your privacy settings per friend or groups of friends, then breathe a little easier, when you want to let er rip about the day you had at work because your work friends won’t be able to read what you’ve posted.
5. Not Thinking Before You Post
Law enforcement officials, employers, and even insurers are snooping Facebook pages trying to scrounge up the goods on you.
So, don’t post anything that could land you in jail, get you fired from a job or have an insurer cancel your life insurance policy for supplying them with false info about your at-risk lifestyle.
One study done in 2009 by the internet security firm Proofpoint estimated that 8 percent of companies fired someone for “misuse” of social media.
And we have every reason to believe this will increase over time — don’t let yourself be part of these statistics!
6. Failing To Use The Private Message Feature
Why would you invite certain people to your son Noah’s bar mitzsvah publicly on your wall? Talk about a tacky move!
Use your private message feature to communicate with those selected few about upcoming events or for conversations that are just not meant for all to survey.
7. Mentioning The Names Of Your Kids Under 13
Is it really necessary to mention your children by name to a network of perhaps 12 real friends and 443 extended ”I don’t really know those folks but I friended them anyway” on your Facebook page?
Parents need to know that on the social web, safety is a shared responsibility Facebook between users and the site.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of undesirables like predators and kidnappers, who may have, or can gain access to your information and a user’s safety depends on the user as much as on the site.
Do you really want these creeps to know your children Howie and Prudence’s names, or to know, where they go to school?
Giving your children privacy is an unwritten commonsense Facebook parental rule! Follow it!
Readers, how often do you see people making these mistakes on Facebook? are you careful about how you use Facebook?
