Social Media Security

No matter what you think about Facebook, you have to admit it's a pretty impressive networking tool. Along with other social media websites, Facebook allows people to stay connected with friends and family. However, there's a darker side to this connection as well: Facebook also connects its user to a number of Internet security risks. To celebrate Facebook's tenth anniversary, SecurityCoverage Inc. shared some interesting facts about today's social networking sites and advice on how users can protect their personal information. Within the past five years, social media sites have seen an explosion in their number of users. In 2008, Facebook and Twitter boasted 100 million users and six million users, respectively. Now over one billion people connect over Facebook and Twitter's user base has almost forty times the number it had five years ago. LinkedIn leaped from 33 million to 225 million users, and Instagram from one million to over 150 million users. In fact, in the span of one minute, there are a hundred thousand new tweets and a hundred new LinkedIn accounts made. A Haven For Hackers Unfortunately, just because everyone uses a site doesn't mean your account on it is 100% safe. This past year was one of the worst in data breaches yet with six million Facebook members affected by a bug that sent private information of users to outside sources. Eight million LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm passwords were stolen and uploaded to a Russian hacker forum, and 250,000 Twitter users' information was hacked. We've all seen the fake tweets by people pretending to be fictional characters, or even imitating celebrities. In just the first months of 2013, 7.2 percent of social media profiles were fake accounts. While hilarious, these phony identities can be shelters for cybercriminals with malicious intentions. One notable scam on Facebook was hackers' attempts to install malware on victims' devices by offering the option of a "dislike" button on the website. Think Before You Click You've heard this a dozen times, but it's still true: once something's online, it doesn't go away. Think before you post pictures or information you don't want everyone to see. Ten percent of respondents in a survey claim that they've regretted posting something, thirty percent include location in their posts, and nearly forty percent of users' profiles are completely or partially public. Take time to look over the privacy and security settings of the social networking sites you use. Sites update their privacy settings every so often, so it's a good idea to keep yourself in the loop to make sure you know what information is available to the public. Over-sharing isn't just annoying for your online friends; it also makes it easy for cybercriminals to steal your identity, access personal data, or even stalk you. Be careful about how much personal information you decide to share on social networking sites. Don't click on suspicious-looking links or advertisements because it could be cybercriminals aiming to compromise your device. More Tips To Keep In Mind Create strong passwords for each of your logins to help prevent your personal information from getting stolen. A password manager is a great tool to use to generate and store hard-to-crack passwords; one of our favorites is Editors' Choice LastPass 3.0. Keep your computer well protected with antivirus software. There are a lot of great options out there; one of them is our Editors' Choice Norton Antivirus (2014). Always back up your data to a remote location just in case your device gets infected or lost. Be smart about how you monitor your personal data; you don't want crooks getting their hands on it.