‘Social Media’ Articles

I received an email last night from a well-known TV anchor wanting my input on a new Facebook issue.  He’d read that when calling Facebook Headquarters, the automated attendant comes on and gives you options to reach each department, and the second option was to press 2 for “law enforcement.”

It could seem odd to many, but it’s true. If you call the Facebook Headquarters (650-543-4800) and reach the switchboard, the 1st option is “For customer support, press 1″ and the second option is “For law enforcement, press 2″. Law enforcement comes ahead of business development, marketing, press, and employment verification in the list of options.When you press 2, the next message says: “This message is only for members of law enforcement. Please note that due to a very large volume of incoming calls, the current call back time is two to four business days. For a faster response, please leave your work authorized email address… A member of Facebook’s security team will email in a timely manner.” Which means that Facebook is very busy fielding calls from law enforcement.

The anchor, and the rest of us, want to know why!

During a recent 60 Minutes interview, I was asked off camera to name the Achilles’ heel of an entire country’s data security perspective; what exactly were the country’s greatest weaknesses. The country happened to be New Zealand, a forward-thinking nation smart enough to take preventative steps to avoid the identity theft problems we face in the States. The question was revealing, as was the metaphor they applied to the discussion.

Achilles, an ancient Greek superhero — half human, half god — was in the business of war. His only human quality (and therefore his only exploitable weakness) was his heel, which when pierced by a Trojan arrow brought Achilles to the ground, defeated. From this Greek myth, the Achilles’ Heel has come to symbolize a deadly weakness in spite of overall strength; a weakness that can potentially lead to downfall. As I formulated my thoughts in regard to New Zealand, I realized that the same weaknesses are almost universal — applying equally well to nations, corporations and individuals.

A New Study from the Ponemon Institute Reveals How Online Safety Behavior Leaves Consumers Vulnerable to Identity Theft.

Although more than 80% of study respondents expressed concern about their security while using social media, more than half of these same individuals admitted they do not take any steps to actively protect themselves. This data clearly demonstrates that while people may acknowledge that security is important, many do nothing to protect their information online.

Other key findings from the survey include the following:

• Approximately 65% of users do not set high privacy or security settings in their social media sites.
• More than 90% of users do not review a given Website’s privacy policy before engaging in use.
• Approximately 40% of all respondents share their physical home address through social media applications.
• Surprisingly, people who have been victims of identity theft are just as likely to be lax in securing their personal information online. Study results from identity theft victims and non-victims are virtually identical.

“The study results are extremely telling, especially about measures that users take, or fail to take, in order to protect their identity while using social networks,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. “I was surprised that those who had experienced identity theft in the past weren’t taking stronger measures to protect their identity. No matter who you are, if you want to increase social networking safety, you must take the necessary steps to protect your information.”

Facebook faced major backlash last month after they implemented a new tool that linked your interests to sites across the Internet and allowed third parties access to your information unless you specifically deny such access. As we mentioned in yesterday’s blog about an easy way to configure your privacy settings in Facebook, there are 50 different settings with more than 170 options!

Many Facebook users have been extremely vocal about their frustrations, even organizing efforts to quit the quickly growing site. According to CNN Facebook will be reversing these changes today to make them simpler for the user with the intent of increasing user privacy.

“I can confirm that our new, simpler user controls will begin rolling out tomorrow. I can’t say more yet,” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes told CNN in an e-mail Tuesday.

In a piece on Monday in The Washington Post, Zuckerberg said upcoming tweaks — which could be implemented as early as Wednesday — will make it simpler to use these privacy controls and and provide an easy way to turn off all third-party services. Keep your eye out for these changes, but if you are concerned about your current privacy settings try this new Facebook Privacy Tool.

Read more on the CNN article: Facebook to Announce Changes after Privacy Settings Backlash

How do I delete my Facebook account? I get asked this question every day. At my speeches, by my clients, by my friends and family. It used to be that people no longer wanted the mundane information overload that Facebook promotes. But now they are looking at it from a privacy perspective – they no longer want their thoughts, pictures, and videos shared indiscriminately with people they don’t know.

The defections have been sparked by Facebook’s continuing march to sell your private information (with only your implied consent, i.e., simply by using Facebook, you agree to their terms) with an ever widening circle of people who are NOT YOUR FRIENDS (advertisers, data miners, and unfortunately, identity thieves). Many of the corporations I speak for have me include a component on safe social networking because the information their employees are posting (personally or professionally) are damaging their corporate brand and profits either through data leakage or as a beach-head for social engineering and other types of fraud.

In past posts, I have pointed to the tools at your disposal to tighten down your Facebook security settings. But suddenly, that is no longer complete enough for people, as Facebook continues to erode what little privacy you can control. Just look at the privacy related Facebook news in the past few weeks:

Yesterday, Google revealed its new social networking tool, Google Buzz. This is a new way to see status messages, picture updates, and Buzz messages of your friends straight through your Gmail account. In some respects, it is very similar to tweets and Facebook status updates, but with the technology and cross-promotion that only Google can deliver. Just as Facebook has tried to combine social media (profiles, messages, pictures, status updates) in one place, Google is attempting to do the same with your email inbox.

What can seem like an innocent way to update friends, if not used correctly, can post  personal and seemingly private information in both the public stream and for those in your geographic vicinity. Read more about Google Buzz and Your Privacy Settings here.

PC World has written an article discussing the the most pressing questions about Google Buzz. It touches on things like how advertisements will be targeted to you based upon your status updates. I can only imagine that this would be very similar to how they currently use the content of your email messages to place targeted ads on your gmail screen.

As with any social networking site, be vigilant, as what you post can be made public, not only to your close friends, but to the world. With any social media the main privacy issue to remember is that all posts are public, permanent, and exploitable.

What began in early 2009 as a free ‘information network’ that offers users the ability to microblog may have already reached the top. A new CNN article discusses how the number of Twitter users has flattened out and even deccreased recently. In July 2009, the site had 21.2 million users which dropped to 19.9 users only 5 months later in December.

Some believe this slump is due to Twitter’s inability to keep up with its users and others are finding the site less and less useful. Perhaps people are less inclined to put so much personal information on the World Wide Web, knowing that everything you post is public, permanent and exploitable. Or maybe we’re just tired of seeing how boring the average person’s day is.

Click Here to read this entire article.

John Sileo became one of America’s leading Social Networking Speakers & Identity Theft Expert after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

That is the best way to Think Like A Spy and be alert of Social Engineers that are trying to manipulate you.  With such a gloomy economy and many people without work, offers for fast cash and huge discounts become more and more attractive. Most of these Identity Theft cases use the technique of Social Engineering.

Social Engineering is the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information by playing on their human emotions. The term typically applies to deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim. These days most thieves can nab your identity over the phone, mail, email, and through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

While some schemes scam you into giving out social security numbers, bank account numbers or other confidential identity pieces, others are as simple as a pickpocket distracting you emotionally while another thief steals your wallet or purse. Here are what a few of the most widely used savvy cyber attacks look like:

• Phony charitable phishing scams, many of which are designed to look as if they come from real charities. Always enter in the exact URL for the Charity that you wish to donate to rather than clicking on a link.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi — Washington socialites are not just known for their possible roles in the upcoming “The Real Housewives of Washington,” but for being seen arriving at the White House State Dinner. The problem was that they weren’t on the guest list, but managed to work their way inside what is supposed to be the most secure party.

The couple took to Facebook to document their party-crashing, and on Wednesday, Michaele Salahi’s Facebook page included photos of the couple at the dinner. The Salahis weren’t exposed until journalists caught sight of pictures showing the Salahis posing with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and others. In the aftermath, the security breach looked more like a publicity stunt than a security threat.  The Secret Service admitted that they did not verify at each checkpoint that this couple was on the invitation list. In other words, they missed the second cardinal rule of security, Verify.

News stories like this bring Facebook Privacy into the spotlight once again. Facebook is becoming used more and more in legal cases and as evidence for both the  prosecution and the defense. Last month, Facebook was used to prove that a crime suspect was posting a status message from his father’s apartment in Harlem and not mugging a victim at gun-point. The charges were immediately dropped.

During a time when rules, laws and privacy settings are having trouble keeping up with technology, Facebook is having trouble keeping up with their ever growing population. Recently topping 350 million users, Facebook is scrambling to satisfy them all. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, posted an open letter on the website discussing changes to the Facebook privacy setting that they are implementing to help make their users data less public. Take a minute to read the full article and protect your profile.

Order your copy of the Facebook Safety Survival Guide to make sure you and your children are protected online.

John Sileo became America’s leading Identity Theft Speaker & Expert after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC.  To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.