Protect yourself on
Facebook
Social
networking sites like Facebook have become a vibrant
component to our online activities: we use it to connect
to friends, relatives and coworkers, organize events,
even make important announcements. We use it for
business, for school, and for social interactions. And,
because it is online, it is also a possible point of
entry for hackers, phishers, and other people looking to
get sensitive personal information or infect computers
with viruses and malware. Read on to discover how to
safely use Facebook and manage its settings to keep your
information and your computers safe.
Monitor your privacy settings.
Facebook's privacy policy and privacy settings are
ever-evolving, so stay up to date with its changes. Your
privacy settings dashboard allows you to access who and
what has access to your profile, who can search for you,
the information that appears on your wall and news feed,
and which information is available to the applications
you use. As changes in Facebook's privacy policy are
made, revisit your settings and change them as
necessary.
Update your Web browser, Adobe, and Java
applications.
If you click a link on Facebook and your computer
becomes infected, or you view malicious Web content with
an old version of a browser or other programs like Java
or Adobe, it's likely that the software won't contain
bug fixes for the vulnerabilities that allow infection.
When you are attacked like this, many times you will not
even know that it has happened. Many of the malicious
links on Facebook will exploit holes in your Web
Browser, as well as your Adobe and Java applications. By
keeping these applications patched and up-to-date you
drastically reduce the risk of this occurring.
Limit the information in your profile.
When you agree to play a game on Facebook, you also
agree to make all the information in your profile
available to the game maker's company. In turn, the
company uses your information for lead-generation, which
is how it makes money. What most people don't realize is
that even if you don't play games or access applications
on Facebook, your friends who do still put you at risk.
With some games and applications, your friend can
allow access to their profile, which also gives the
company access to yours. You need to consider that
anything you put in Facebook may as well be public, so
don't include anything that would be good bait for
identity thieves.
Avoid advertisements and downloads and carefully examine
web links.
Many banner or pop-up ads carry the potential to infect
Avoid clicking on any banner or pop-up ads on the
web, but especially on Facebook or Twitter.
Further, avoid any downloads offered via Facebook
or Twitter; these also often include malicious software.
If you are sent a download or a link from someone you
trust, examine the URL carefully to ensure that it
appears legitimate.
Who are you friend-ing?
You have a friend request!
Is the person someone you are familiar with?
Does the account have an odd name?
Think twice about approving their request.
In some cases, an unfamiliar friend request may
lead to you friend-ing a bot designed to harvest
personal information or infect your computer.
If you don’t know them, avoid friend-ing them!
Know Your Facebook and Twitter E-mails
Carefully ensure that any e-mail from Facebook or
Twitter is legitimate. Try to handle notifications
like new friend requests or wall comments via Facebook
itself rather than via links in e-mails.
In some cases, these e-mails may be fake,
directing you to spyware instead of your Facebook
account!
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