Security on social network sites like Facebook or MySpace

Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and Twitter that are rich with personal information are becoming targets for identity thieves and other cyber-criminal scams, according to the FBI and other cybersecurity experts. These accounts are often compromised through the result of phishing schemes.

If you use social networking sites, carefully review your "Profile" information with security in mind, particularly for information that might be useful for someone seeking to impersonate you. Home addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, pictures of yourself that might be used to fake an ID card, and other seemingly innocuous information could be very useful to an identity thief.

Even family information or pictures could be useful to a thief, as family-related questions like "What is your mother's maiden name?" are often used to verify your identity in banking and e-commerce sites. Sharing travel photos while you are on vacation is great, but consider: you are advertising that your house may be unoccupied while you are away.

Steps you can take to preserve your privacy in social networking:

• Review your profile information, blog posts, Facebook "wall" comments, and even your family photos to see where you might have provided useful identity information to a potential thief.
• Don't believe everything you read on Facebook or other social sites: Scammers who have broken the security of one of your friends accounts will quickly contact all other "friends" with phishing or other scam emails that seem to come from someone you know and trust. Be especially suspicious of requests for money or personal information, or links to web sites within the body of an email message.
• Review your privacy settings to be sure that only people you choose to share information with have access to your detailed profile and pictures. But don't rely on privacy settings to protect highly sensitive information — they can't guarantee that if you post embarrassing pictures of yourself that the photos won't be distributed or viewed outside your carefully selected group of friends.
• Never put anything truly sensitive on a social media site: Social Security numbers, your exact home address, phone numbers, credit card or banking information of any kind, or detailed information on close family members could all help a thief compromise your identity.

---

Articles on security and privacy for social media sites:

• Beware Hijacked Social Networking Accounts, FBI Warns
• Social media an inviting target for cybercriminals

Security and privacy information from social media sites:

• Facebook
• Flickr
• Twitter