Path to 3lit3

Social Network Security

By: Beta Cpt Neverdie

“Users of social networking sites are feeling the stress of cybercrooks, says Virginia Tech’s Randy Marchany.”

The growth of users in many social network websites like myspace, facebook, hi5, and twitter is making these sites are the target of many malwares creators especially hackers who are looking for information of users. Without proper understanding in using these social networks makes some users becoming the victims.

“A social network is a social structure made of individuals (or organizations) called “nodes,” which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network”

Since number of users (Fig.1) are growing up daily, there are many companies working on this new media strategies. Many of them decided to join as well as create many applications such as “Be tycoon” on facebook. These applications always ask you for an authority to get into your personal information as well as of course your friend lists. Besides, the object of websites is to get the most users to register with them. It looks like people bring their money to save with the vaults; nonetheless, these are not the bank where they can guarantee their security. When the bank loses your money, it will cover all expenses to get you money back. In contrast, there are no guarantees from any social networking websites in case of someone could mange to get into your vault and take your important information and pick your pocket. Before the time is come, it is on your two own hands to protect you yourself from any kinds of cheaters just follow these simple steps provided by the Microsoft Corperation:

1. Be cautious whenever you click links that you receive in messages from your friends on your social Web site even though it is from my most trusted friend.
2. Don’t trust that a message is really from who it says it’s from. Hackers can break into accounts and send messages that look like they’re from your friends, but aren’t. If you suspect that a message is fraudulent, use an alternate method to contact your friend to find out. This includes invitations to join new social networks.
3. To avoid giving away e-mail addresses of your friends, do not allow social networking services to scan your e-mail address book. When you join a new social network, you might receive an offer to enter your e-mail address and password to find out who else is on the network. The site might use this information to send e-mail messages to everyone in your contact list or even everyone you’ve ever sent an e-mail message to with that e-mail address. Social networking sites should explain that they’re going to do this, but some do not.
4. Type the address of your social networking site directly into your browser or use your personal bookmarks. If you click a link to your site through e-mail or another Web site, you might be entering your account name and password into a fake site where your personal information could be stolen.
5. Be selective about who you accept as a friend on a social network. Identity thieves might create fake profiles in order to get information from you. This is known as social engineering.
6. Choose your social network carefully. Evaluate the site that you plan to use and make sure you understand the privacy policy. Find out if the site monitors content that people post. You will be providing personal information to this Web site, so use the same criteria that you would to select a site where you enter your credit card.
7. Assume what you write on a social networking site is permanent. Even if you can delete your account, anyone on the Internet can easily print the information or save it to a computer.
8. Be careful about installing extras on your site. Many social networking sites allow you to download third-party applications that let you do more with your personal page. Criminals sometimes use these applications in order to steal your personal information. To download and use third-party applications safely, take the same safety precautions that you take with any other program or file you download from the Web.
9. Think twice before you use social networking sites at work. For more information, see Be careful with social networking sites, especially at work.
10. Talk to your kids about social networking. If you’re a parent of children who use social networking sites, see How to help your kids use social Web sites more safely.

References: Social network security: Social anxiety Dan Kaplan, 07 Aug 09 Top websites using Flash cookies to track user behaviorAngela Moscaritolo, 11 Aug 09 10 tips for social networking safety Microsoft, 18 Sept 08

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