Safety: General Information for Social Sites and Email....
It can be the links you get in a chat, on your board, or in messages. This issue also plagues other sites like twitter and also email. What you might receive a message from someone talking about something and then giving you a link to a site.
Many people are not cautious on social sites. A large number of people do things which they don’t realize as dangerous such as including their full name, location (address), phone number, age, if they are going to be away from home, where they bank, and more. Regardless of whether you are online or not entail some of the same measures for your safety.
When you use a social site like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, or others; we all need to keep in mind that the information we share is then viewable by everyone on that site. Think to yourself before you post or message anything, am I sure I want to release this information about myself? Do you want people to know your EXACT birth date, or your full name, or when you are going on vacation/how long you will be gone/where you are going?
There is also the “friending” you can do on social sites, where you make someone a “friend” and they can see what you post, they can sent you im’s, etc… A good thing to keep in mind is whether or not you actually know the person who is “friending” you. If you don’t know them, don’t friend them. This can lead to issues with friending someone who does NOT have your best interests in mind.
Also the messages which are the reason for e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and others, can be very unsafe. Your personal information, your computer, your online accounts or all of them could be compromised by what is a somewhat “passive” attack on you. As many people post messages, and send/receive emails, an individual with malicious intent can message/email you and include harmful content. Many times people receive messages/emails which are from a sender they aren’t familiar with; or there is not sender listed; or there is no subject or an unusual or short or cryptic or a generic message. An exploit message/email will usually have horrible spelling, its usually vague, may have images that look kind of similar to the site they are talking about, and are typically written like:
Example
“!!!Cliick here For This cool new site to get free mony and Stuffs!!!”
Example
“DANgers!!! Your Bank Acount was Haked…. Clik the link to the your Bamk an Entre youre Acount Numbeer and PIN Numbeer so we makes you safe again! Do now so youre safe!
Great Thanks!
Signed Youre Bank!
I have exaggerated it a bit for clarity, but did you notice how words aren’t spelled correctly? And that some words are capital and others aren’t in the middle of a message, they ask for your personal information, and they talk about how they can "make you safe" and get “free” money and stuff. All of those are warning signs of malicious emails/messages. Other times you may get messages on your Facebook wall from people you don’t know. The messages vaguely reference a topic and include the link for to see more…..! This could be a link to a malicious web site that once you are on it a script runs and can/will infect your computer.
While you read the next example, notice how the subject isn’t specific, and they include a link so that you would have to click it to “hear more”. The message is very vague because most people are so curious that they feel like they HAVE to click on the link to “hear more”. This is one way to direct careless, gullible people into an infection, once they are on the page a script may install an infection on their computer:
Example
“Did you hear about the wave? Its the latest! Here is the link to hear more!: http://www.....thesoc/fh384.cn/hfdi”
So Don’t Be Gullible!
If you get a message from someone, and your pretty sure the friend is not “out to get you” and the message includes a decent explanation….. then just look it up on your own! Take this example of an email/social message:
Example
Did you hear that the moon might be causing earthquakes, I read this on NatGeo!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0523_050523_moonquake.html
You could believe that the link is reliable, but it could be shortened, hidden, or a click-jacking attempt. Just go to Google and look-up: “moon might be causing earthquakes, national geographic”. I wouldn't just trust the links that people on social sites send/post or put in emails. Keep in mind that it might be from your friend who is sending you something legit...
But it could be:
1. A forward from someone/a friend who is forwarding a message from someone who has malicious intent.
2. The friend may have had their account hacked and that hacker is using your friends account to hack you.
3. It could just be that your friend isn’t careful online and is unknowingly sending you to an infected/hijacked website.
4. It could be a friend who doesn’t like you and is sending you to an infected site to get back at you!
No Fear!
I don’t want to scare you because social sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and email are fun and safe as long as you’re careful!:
- Don’t release exact location/personal info,
- don’t respond to messages from people you don’t know,
- don’t “friend” people you don’t know,
- don’t open emails from people you don’t recognize,
- don’t open emails with no subject line especially if you don’t recognize the person who sent it,
- don’t open/save attachments in an email if you don’t know who the email is from and/or didn’t expect an attachment from anyone!
NOTE: This is not comprehensive of all exploits or ways to protect against them. This is just a summary of things to be mindful of when online.
Also..... Please dont resurrect really old threads.
