Sep

Social Networking Security

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Social Networking Security

The world of social networks opens up a whole new world of communication, connection and relationship. Renewing contact with friends and business associates, and even building new ones is fast, fun and easy.

But with that great convenience , we also open up convenient ways for our security to be compromised by crooks and enemies. There are legions of stories of people having embarressing photos or private information exposed to the world without realizing it and wishing they could take it back. While that is bad enough, we also know of posted information being used to rob people when they are not home as well. This can be some dangerous territory.

There are also stories of people having their reputations attacked in the anonymous world the Internet allows where anyone can say anything about anyone and remain hidden in the background. That same anonymity also allows us to be impersonated or even have our identity stolen. Someone can copy all of our Facebook page and create one just like it by having a page with a similar name, designed to look just like ours and from which they can put damaging or even outright false information that embarresses us or damages us or both.

All of this might be enough to scare you off of social networks completely but that is no answer anymore than suggesting you get off the Internet just to protect yourself from computer viruses. The tool is simply too useful to avoid. It just had to be used more wisely to protect your safety.

How to Protect Yourself

The key to protecting yourself is to first use the common sense that your life experience has given you in the non Internet world. When you join a community in the real world, you learn the rules. You don’t join a golf club, or Kiwanis club or even a local house of worship without knowing the culture you are walking in to.

But most everyone signs up for Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn (for professional networking), and signs off ( “I Accept”) on the terms and conditions (without reading them) and starts typing away and uploading pictures. They are often completely unaware of the world they are now part of.

They also don’t learn the “settings” in their account that control privacy. You can, for example, let your friends and acquaintances see pictures, for example, but restrict them from being viewed by casual passers by, or by the search engines. What you choose to share and what you don’t is an important decision. It is the same as you might do to draw the shades on your living room window when having friends over for dinner. The same goes online. You simply have to learn the controls for the “shades”.

What should you do?

Facebook and Google Buzz (another recent new network) have recently been taken to task by the media on this topic with the charge that people are often unaware of the privacy issues in using their services. These companies have taken steps to educate their members better or, in the case of Google, even tightened the default security settings for them.

You should do what you would do in the offline world, learn the club house rules and decide for yourself how you want to interact with others. Take the tour of the service that educates you about its use. They are often in the members help section (first time users for twitter, help for new members to Facebook and so on). They will walk you through how to use the service more effectively (always good to know) as well as how to protect yourself and to adjust your privacy settings to what works for you, your personality or your professional and family situation.

Think about it. You are going to probably spend some time on these sites. Used wisely, Facebook can actually be a time saver helping you stay connected with people who are important to you. So take a few minutes and go through the tutorials and customize your profile and your security.

The bigger security issue – your own computer

The bigger issue of identity and security is your own computer. Even when you are not on Facebook or LinkedIn, your computer can be compromised as we all know. Banking information, credit cards, and passwords can be stolen by viruses, and spyware and outright hacking. Some computers are running slow because they have actually been taken over by spam mail systems that turn your computer into a silent sender of their advertisting spam messages. Some estimates are that more than 80% of computers are used in this manner. I don’t know if I buy that number, but if it is even 20% it is huge.

So what can you do?

Sure, having Antivirus and Anti Spyware software is important and having all the Windows security updates in place as well (Windows Updates) even more so.

But that is not nearly enough.

Think about this one. Major security companies, banks, and government institutions suffer security breaches every year. We all hear about them when they hit the news. Why is that? Aren’t they using the best of the best security practices ? (We sure hope so) But the fact that they spend millions of dollars every year on security and still get compromised ought to tell us that no amount of spending on antivirus software will completely protect us. It is a game of cat and mouse and the bad guys win some of the time.

The Real Solution

My solution may seem crazy to you.

The real solution is to completely wipe out your computer every 3 months and start over. Now hold on before you think I’m nuts suggesting this. If you have ever had to have your computer reloaded that suggestion probably seems impossible. If you are like most people, it takes days to get your computer up and running again and you might even be worried about losing your precious information.

But understand that the fear of losing information or the concern that you don’ have time or concern that you dont know how to reload your computer is exactly what the bad guys are counting on! If you want to wipe them out, learning what I am about to share with you will forever protect you from them.

Reloading your computer is easy

Reloading your computer is easy if you have a professional help you set it up just ONCE by having an IMAGE made of your computer. An image captures your computer’s setup before it is compromised and puts it in “freeze dried storage” for you. If your computer ever gets compromised, (or you even think it might be compromised) you can completely wipe it out (and wipe out all the bad stuff with it) and have your computer back up and running perfectly in 45 minutes !

I am not kidding. It is that easy.

You probably may need a professional to do this for you for the first time and if you want someone to help you, contact me and I will suggest someone for you to help with it that is in your local area. If you do this, not only will your computer be perfectly protected from compromise every 3 months, but it will actually perform better as well.

Setting yourself up to reload your computer easily is the greatest way to ensure that your privacy and identity are protected fully both online and on your local computer. Whether we like it or not, social networks are a way of being that is now part of our culture with Facebook now larger than Google in traffic on some days. We need to know how to use these tools responsibly and we need to protect ourselves.

Take my advice and learn the rules of the road. And let me be a bit crazy with you and help you learn how to “clean your car” yourself by having an image of your computer made for you. It will help you sleep better at night. Search for my other article on this topic. It is called “How to Be Virus Free Forever”.

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