Posted on February 22nd, 2010Social networking users have become easy prey for cyber criminals as more and more users share private data to the public. Criminals are harvesting and distributing Facebook users’ information, sending spam, planting viruses, and stealing identities. Users put themselves at risk each day by carelessly clicking on invitations to join groups from their ‘friends’. They put all their private data including photos and date of birth on their page. They even reply to fake requests for security information.
These are ten tips to help users stay safe on Facebook:
1. Consider who you add: Approving requests from your friends provides them with access to your messages, photographs, posts and basic information. You need to go through your friends list and consider who you really want to view your stuff.
2. Review privacy settings: Facebook have just got a face-lift and some changes on default privacy settings. It is worth going through your privacy setting again – perhaps you’re sharing more than you should.
3. Why do you join Facebook? Keep in touch with people? Is it just to share photographs? Share updates of your activities and links? Ask yourself do you need to share your phone numbers or address on the profile page. It might be better to limit on private data sharing.
4. Manage your password smartly: Try not to use a single password for all your online accounts. Consider whether your security questions are not too easy to guess.
5. Be aware of public computers: When signing in from a public computer, check that it does not store your username and password. It is easy to accidentally choose the “remember username/password” feature on its browser.
6. Don’t tell everything: Once comments and status updates are posted, anyone can read them. Do you really want everyone to know you’ll be away on vacation tomorrow or home alone tonight?
7. Identify phishing attacks: There have been many attempts to get users’ e-mails and passwords by sending them with bogus Facebook e-mails. Don’t trust any e-mails requiring you to reset your passwords by clicking any links on them. Change your passwords only on Facebook.
8. Take quick actions: If your buddies start receiving spam messages from you or strange wall posts appear on your page, your account can be compromised. Quickly change your password. If you are unable to log into your Facebook account, notify the site administrator by going to the Help link located at the bottom of the page.
9. Protect your mobile device: Newer cell phones have direct link to popular social networking web sites, including Facebook. Be careful about who has access to your mobile device and make sure you log out the sites regularly.
10. Observe suspicious activity: Keep an eye out for suspicious activities on your wall, inbox, and news feeds. Don’t click on any suspicious links. Look closely, if a link doesn’t look authentic, stay away from it.
Check this Article for Other Security Trends: Ten Major Security Trends in 2010/