Recently, a woman I know had her Facebook and e-mail accounts hacked into. The e-mail account generated bogus e-mails to everyone in her address book. Using Facebook, the hackers sent messages to all of her friends.
Social Networking has created many links with people we may never have met before and that’s great. But the downside is that it makes us more vulnerable to hackers.
What are hackers looking for?
Some are after your identity. Others are getting paid to spam – either via email or through social networking – says As George Butters, CEO www.NewMediaDrive.com. “None of this is new, just the names of the social networking sites and the technical means used to get around the barriers. You build a better lock, they build a better lock pick.”
The most important thing is to do is create hacker-safe passwords to keep your information secure. Here are some General tips for creating hacker-safe passwords:
- Avoid using the same password for more than one account, service or resource. If one is cracked the others will be cracked as well.
- Passwords should contain a mix of characters – a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters (if allowed by the site).
- Avoid using consecutive or repeating numbers or letters: 1234 or abcd.
- Don’t use words spelled backwards or simple substitutions like replacing the letter “O” with the number zero (0). Hacker programs can actually recognize this.
- Avoid picking easily guessable passwords that represent items found near your work area, names of family members or pets, birthdays or phone numbers.
- If you suspect that your passwords have been compromised, change them immediately. In fact, it’s a good idea to change your passwords often.
- Never reveal your passwords to anyone, especially online (phishing) scams that ask you to send your password.
- Don’t reuse passwords. Have many and a system for keeping them.
In my next blog I’ll share ways to help you generate and remember secure passwords. In the meantime, if you have something to share about security and social networking please feel free to comment.
