TechnoGranny
Topic: Ways criminals use social media +
prevention tips
Are those who refuse to use Social Media because
they don't want to be exposed on the internet paranoid? Maybe
not! Are you too casual with what you post on social media? Probably!
From the ordinary threats like PHISHING and MALWARE to Affinity Scams
and Cybercasing and Cyberstalking find out how you may be exposing
yourself easily to the criminal mind. It may not be today, it may
not be tomorrow that your careless info is used but remember how long
that info stays on the net. Listen in so that you can learn to be more
vigilant.
To Get the Full Story Listen Here:
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| It's not just about protecting your passwords! |
With online users consistently tasked with sharing more
personal information -- and generally receiving less disclosure about it --
just who can access that information becomes difficult to tell. This culture of
sharing, whether purposeful or not, can leave users vulnerable to criminal
attack, a topic that I have explored before with regard to Facebook Friends and who you accept and also Identity Theft.
Like many of us, I have a
friend who refuses to use social media, convinced the sites make it too easy
for the government and criminals to keep track of individuals. Though that may
seem farfetched, there is much research to shed light on
criminal activity on the web.
For example, users who openly discuss not
being at home in posts on Twitter might as well leave their doors unlocked. While sharing your plans to
take in a play may seem innocent, it allows for cybercriminals to gather all
the information they need if they want to rob an empty house, particularly when
coupled with the sophisticated software they can use to amalgamate data.
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| Is that gift worth exposing your vacant home? |
In the same vein, although I advise my marketing clients to offer rewards for geo-checkins into locations via
FourSquare while they may be good for businesses, I stay
away from that practice I caution you to consider the same as to not make
it easy for potential cyberstalkers to narrow down interests and locations
frequented by specific users. When you are tweeting or posting that you are leaving for the beach, you might want to consider who is staying behind to watch the family homestead. After all considering how easy technology has
made it to harvest information, many criminals now case their prey exclusively online.
When it comes to attempted online crime, I can speak from experience. In fact, were it not for my online savvy, one of
my close friends could have lost a thousand dollars through a fraudulent
Craigslist transaction. You can hear this story on the show.
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| "Cyber casing" often goes unnoticed. |
Another information outlet criminals can prey upon is
geotagging. Many pictures and videos posted online contain easily accessible
metadata that contains the geographic coordinates that content was shot at.
While such information is used for a public feature like Instagram's photo maps,
it is also of great interest to criminals. There are
studies that show how quickly and accurately geotagging can lead a criminal to
a target.
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| Not every internet pitfall has a warning. |
Aside from discussing several more studies and methods of
online criminals, I offer several tips on how to stay safe
online. Personally, I abstain from connecting with anyone I do not know
on sites like LinkedIn. I keeps my birthday off social networks and proactively
claim my name on social networks to protect against the threat of profile
cloning, or the act of posing as an individual on social networks, maybe in an
attempt to commit affinity fraud (scheming family and friends through the trust
of knowing someone personally).
I offer additional tips, too, underlining the
importance of choosing a strong password and exercising care when using third
party sites and applications, amongst other safeguards.
This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the
following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith, Techno Granny Show™ 2013,
Dreamweaver Marketing Associates, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15230, 412-628-5048
Or
on its unique radio channel at:
Additional blog posts at: http://technogrannyshow.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of
Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on
Web 2.0 Branding.
2009 SBA Small Business Journalist of the Year
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