5 Threats To Your Security When Using Social Media

[EC]

Hat tip to Alyssa Milano for tweeting this. (What? I think she's cute and a good actress.)

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/5-social-media-threats_b51841

Social networking has changed the way we interact with friends and associates. While social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, FourSquare, and Google+, play a significant role in our lives, they are also a high risk for security threats.

With hundreds of millions of users online, these tools not only attract friends and family wanting to stay in touch, but they also attract people wanting to know about you for the wrong reasons. Be aware of the top five security threats currently out there to help you stay safe online.

1. Having Your Identity Stolen

Identity thieves gather personal information from social media sites. Even if you have your account on the highest security settings, there are still ways for an identity thief to get your information. Most social network sites have information that is required, such as email address or birthday. It’s common for an identity thief to hack an email account by using social information. For example, a common technique to get personal information is by clicking on “forgot password” and trying to recover the information through email. Once the thief has access to your email account, they then have access to all information on your social networking sites.

So what can you do to protect yourself? You don’t have to delete all your social profiles or hide from the real world; just take these precautions.

    Have a strong password. The stronger your password, the harder it is to guess. Use special characters like symbols and capital letters when creating your password. Also, don’t use “common” passwords, like your birthday or your child’s name.
    Be careful with your status updates. Often, we innocently post status updates that would give an identity thief information they need to steal our identity. For example, you may post “Happy birthday to my mother!” and then tag her in the post. Likely, your mother’s maiden name will be associated with that tag now. A popular security question is “What is your mother’s maiden name?” and if you share that online, you run the risks of identity thieves getting the answer to this commonly used question.
    Don’t reveal your location. You can use a fake location or make one up from another city and state. You may even be able to leave this information blank. Be cautious and never use a city and state where you live.

2. Getting Your Computer Or Social Profile Hacked

More at link.

I know a lot of it is simple common sense, but reminders are always good.

[Oceander]

Here's the problem with strong passwords:  once you have more than a few online accounts, it becomes increasing difficult to remember each account's password.  Add to that the annoying security questions a lot of sites ask, and it can be well nigh impossible to remember your passwords unless you (a) write them down, which is very insecure, or (b) use the same password, or a close variant, for all of your accounts, which is also insecure because if one account is hacked, all of your accounts are at risk.