Facebook is now the world's leading social networking platform with you and some other 800++ million people who use it everyday. And among the millions of people using it for connectivity, are the thousands who use it for cybercrime.
Like every other corner in the internet, Facebook is experiencing their fair share of attacks too. Out of the daily 800++ million number of people on Facebook, 4 million people experience spam, and 600,000 attempts of hijack logins are being made on a daily basis. Apart from this, 20% of Facebook users have already been exposed to malware.
One way or another, we are exposed to crooks on Facebook. These crooks take in the form of personal-information-scouting-applications and "friends" who look suspicious. But don't let them get in the way of you reconnecting and sharing with your real friends! You can still have fun and stay safe! Here are some tips to keep you secure and private from Facebook cybercrime:
1. Get to know not just new people, but your privacy settings as well
a. Search Settings: Who can find you when they search for your name? You can limit people who can find you, or you can just completely disable the function!
b. Photo Settings: Who can see your photos? Make sure to separate young personal life and work life. You wouldn't want your boss to see those drunken pictures of you now would you? (kidding)
c. Keep in mind that your friends can share your information to their profiles as well. If you don't want this happening, you can edit those privacy settings under "Applications and Websites".
2. Don't add people you don't know - Suspicious and fake accounts exist for a reason, and that reason usually being-- stalking and spying. Accounts and users you are not familiar with are most probably cybercriminals looking for their next victims online.
3. Limit the use of applications - Some applications have been admitted by Facebook to actually send out our personal information to external servers. as I've talked about in my previous blog post, 'Cookies, anyone?', these applications send out out personal information to ad firms.
4. Protect your location - I personally, am very much annoyed and creeped out with the location feature on social networking sites now. Some tips:
a. Don't ever check-in at home - To keep our exact house address private from every person on our friend's list.
b. Never check-in at a friend's or family member's home - To avoid compromising their own privacy and safety.
c. Don't link to Twitter - Twitter feeds are usually public and out in the open for everyone to see. At least in Facebook, only our friends guaranteed can see the places we've checked-in at.
5. Don't Overshare - Always keep in mind that it's harder to take back information rather than not sharing information at all.
Sources: ZoneAlarm Blog and FoxNews
