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Stranger Danger
Posted by: EgbertFly on May 27, 2010
Keep your friends close, only when you know they are friends.
One of the things that my daughter has learnt at school is the concept of Stranger Danger. It is a simple and effective concept. That being that if you don't know a person, you don't trust them.
Many companies have given up trying to fight against the tide and have given way to allowing social networking sites access from their networks.
Should you happen to be employed by or the owner or director of such a company, education about the risks and how to negate or at least mitigate some of them is paramount.
The amount of information that people place on social networking sites is staggering.
Just because a field is there, does not mean that it has to be filled. Your birthday, including the year, is a vital piece of information the identity theft requires. Heed the Stranger Danger
Don’t just accept anyone as a friend. The logic here is to limit your friends to people you actually know and hopefully can trust. If you must, create a second account that you allow acquaintances and people who might know you to link to, but don’t have your date of birth on either.
A popular anti-virus and security company has the following recommendations about security setting for the ever popular Facebook.
Identity theft targets Facebook among other sites to glean information about users.
There are privacy setting on Facebook, they just need to be set correctly. Adjust the settings to help protect on-line privacy. Go though the Facebook to Privacy. Should you have any doubts about your privacy, check the “How others see you” option.
Know who your friends are. If they are acquaintances as opposed to friends, try using the limited option to show them only a portion of your profile.
As with all good security options like firewall, disable everything and only enable things as you need them. The same applies to Facebook. Disable everything and then only open options as you need them. Consider what you wish to use Facebook for. Turn off all the fancy bits.
The rules are simple. Follow them and heed the warning Stranger Danger. Educate the masses to empower them.
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