FaceBook Horror

While i agree that Facebook is an easy way to make friends and a fun web application with alot of widget to play around it, however, social networking website such as facebook poses a larger threat to the online community than email viruses.

I stumbled and read an article on PCworld website and wanted to summarise the potential threats these social networking sites have in common.

1)The Nigerian 419
Sounds like the Nigerian email scan ain't it? Well the logic is about the same, the person hijacked your friend account and sent you seemingly convincing messages telling you that he is in trouble overseas and need some money to be sent there ASAP. People fall for these more easily than on other means because messages can be very convincing as alot of your information may be found on the internet that is maybe on your profile on other internet data linked to your facebook profile

Protection
- Before trusting completely on email, messages recieve contact your friend or relative that might be in contact with him to clear things out.
- Never post too much on personal information on the net

2) Widgets!!!
Damn i love those fun widgets on facebook, however be weary on the widgets you install.
A popular widget that people install is "Secret Crush", a program which "helps" people find their Secret admirer online. This program is actually install adwares and spywares into your computer taking your information and uploading them and about 60million people have downloaded as reports shown. Secret Crush have been "crushed" by facebook however there are still hundreds or maybe thousands of programs similar to it.

Protection
- There are thousands of widgets online that you can install, be wise and make sure that you know how the widget works before granting them permission or installing them.
Dont trust that every single widget is safe to use and do not use programs that ask you for sensitive information like those crush finder programs. (If you think logically if a person have a secret crush on you, will he or her place the information online? )

3)Koopface virus
It starts as you as a innocent facebook user surfing facebook and hey you see someone post a link online that directs to a video or a picture that interest you. You pressed it and it once you are on the page, it ask you to install an active x. You blindly installed it and wahla, the virus is inside your computer and it will start posting link to your facebook friends so that they will also fall for this trick. Its a Malware of lots of type (If you do not know what is malware, go to my malware article)

Protection
Anti-virus would often catch these viruses however this will only work if you downloaded the active X as an exe file to scan or your anti-virus protection is monitoring your online movements.
However if you want to be extra careful go search for the name of the active x online to find if it is legit.


4) Phishing! (I told you its everywhere)
Phishing websites can be made easily and it will look exactly like the website from the information to the design. Thus it is "The" easiest way to scam and take your sensitive information from you. Once they get your account information, it can be used to do alot of things, namely all of the above.

Protection
Check your website address bar and be sure that it is the offical address or manually type it in for e.g. www.facebook.com
(Check out my Phishing articles to learn more about phishing)

5)Communities
One of the biggest selling point of a social website is the strong communities that support it and it even gives you the chance to be in the community and share the joy with the people who have joined it. Joining these communities is not harmful to your privacy however be weary of it too because people can form fake communities that resembles a real one and if they are successful and convincing enough they will be able to get necessary information from you e.g. email addresses, age, name etc.

Protection
- Be sure that you know the community before you join them, even if the admins and members looked convincing enough, be sure to get in contact with them via a different mean e.g. via the community official email.

Conclusion,
Social networking websites is fun and more importantly if increases our social circle. However most of these website require you to provide personal information online and most of it could be seen by your friends or outsiders claiming to be your friends. As you do not know 100% who you are talking to on the internet be sure of what you post online.