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Monday, 26 August 2013

Share less on #Facebook - share with fewer as well

CyberSecurity Malaysia chief executive officer Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab warns that sharing intimate issues on Facebook puts you at greater risk of fraud. Wahab explains that criminals scan Facebook pages, gather personal information from posts, and use these to befriend then defraud Facebook users.

Dr. Wahab warns us to share less. 

I encourage you to share with fewer as well.

One reason why criminals prowl social media is that it's a perfect place to exploit individuals' desires to be popular (liked), connected (successful), or admired (followed). These are all acceptable behaviors, but consider protecting yourself online by practicing the following online:

Be moderate in what you post. Consider the difference between mentioning that you have been ill and sharing that you've had percutaneous coronary intervention (angioplasty). You're very unlikely to get sound medical advice from followers or friends, and the latter is ammunition for a targeted (spear) phish from an attacker. 

Be conservative in public. Share publicly on Facebook is no different from hiring a small aircraft to skywrite what you say.  Read Facebook's Choose Who You Share With if you are unclear how to control who sees your posts. 

Be prudent when joining pages or authorizing apps. Reveal only a taste of your tastes and interests.

Be cautious when accepting friend requests. Don't get caught up in a numbers race. Be particularly careful when accepting friend requests of individuals whom you do not know outside of Facebook or other social media. 

Several of these safety measures apply to other social media. Apply them liberally.

Posted at 11:18 AM in All matters security, Anti-Malware and Anti-phishing |

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