PersonalI thought most people know about these things, but changed my mind after receiving lot of spam links and really-no-idea Facebook application invitations from others. May be the following basic tips to strengthen your IT security (of your computers, social network accounts) would be useful for some.
- Protect your computer first, at least with an antivirus program. I used Symantec AntiVirus for years and haven’t got any big virus infection (i.e., ones require re-installation). I found Norton 360 is pretty good and fast enough, though many says it’s slow. For free, AVG Free seems good enough (i found it slow).
- 2011-03-28 update: AV-Test.org provides expert reviews on anti-virus softwares (protection, repair and usability): updated every quarter. Its comparison table is very useful in choosing which antivirus software to use in your operating system. AV-Comparatives gives comprehensive comparison on virus detection.
- Spyware protection: Spybot Search and Destroy is free and can detect a lot of things others can’t. Its real-time system protection module (TeaTimer) can considerably slow down your computer, so you may disable it.
- Web (in general): Don’t click whatever you see, and use Google Chrome (it’s really fast and secured). Internet Explorer has some cool features but it can quickly get infection to the point of totally down (mine in Vista was unusable after 10 minutes using). Firefox is really good with add-ons, but slower and buggier than Chrome.
- 2010-10-19 update: Wall Street Journal’s What They Know project has a very useful introduction & data on how “marketers are spying on Internet users — observing and remembering people’s clicks, and building and selling detailed dossiers of their activities and interests… The Journal analyzed the tracking files installed on people’s computers by the 50 most popular U.S. websites, plus WSJ.com. The Journal also built an “exposure index” — to determine the degree to which each site exposes visitors to monitoring — by studying the tracking technologies they install and the privacy policies that guide their use.”
- 2011-10-05 update: If you’re using Chrome browser, you could go to Options => Under the Hood => Privacy: Content settings: select ‘Allow local data to be set for the current session only’ or ‘Block sites from setting any data’, ‘Block third-party cookies from being set’, and ‘Clear cookies and other site and plug-in data when I close my brower’. This could prevent most exploiting cookies. Another way is directly block unwanted websites by modifying the host file in your machine (someonewhocares.org/hosts/).
- 2012-01-16 update: google.com/goodtoknow is a comprehensive and easy-to-understand guide on online security and privacy, a must read.
- Facebook: Please read this readwriteweb.com/archives/5_easy_steps_to_stay_safe_and_private_on_facebook.php. One reason why i didn’t accept many Facebook application invitations (sorry guys :D) because by default, Facebook apps can access my information as well as my friends’s information without their permission. Besides, most apps there are designed to waste time :D
- 2010-01-17 update: A very good and detailed article (Using Facebook and Twitter safely) from ZDNet Asia.
- 2010-04-27 update: With the new privacy changes from Facebook in its efforts to make money, you may need to read the 5 tips to protect online identity in this article from ZDNet: Identity theft ‘almost effortless’ in social networks. To really understand how unsecured it is on the net (e.g., after posting your birthday, addresses, phone numbers), a very nice book to read is Secrets and lies: Digital security in a networked world from Bruce Schneier, creator of the Twofish algorithm and this pretty nice and free password management software Password Safe).
- 2010-05-21 update: Facebook sent some user data to advertisers
- 2010-07-08 update: “German officials have launched legal proceedings against Facebook for accessing and saving the personal data of people… who had not signed up to Facebook, but whose details had been added to the site by friends. He accused Facebook of saving private data of non-members without their permission, to be used for marketing purposes.”
- 2010-10-07 update: Irony: Facebook’s new groups give me less control, not more from searchengineland.com: ”…groups go wrong from the beginning, by failing to ask if you want to be included. It gets worse. As best I can tell, once you’re in a group, you can add anyone else to it… Imagine. You create a group for your 10 best friends, so you can all share pictures and information about your kids. One of them adds a few more people they trust, and so on, and your “private” group is now exposed to friends of friends of friends — who probably aren’t your friends. You weren’t asked about any of this, and the material you thought was private now has wider circulation than you may have originally assumed…”
- 2010-10-19 update: “Facebook in online privacy breach” (a very good Wall Street Journal investigation, part of WSJ project What They Know – take a look at the data here): “Many of the most popular applications, or “apps,” on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies… The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook’s strictest privacy settings… The apps… include Zynga Game Network Inc.’s FarmVille, with 59 million users, and Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille. Three of the top 10 apps, including FarmVille, also have been transmitting personal information about a user’s friends to outside companies… one data-gathering firm, RapLeaf Inc., had linked Facebook user ID information obtained from apps to its own database of Internet users, which it sells. RapLeaf also transmitted the Facebook IDs it obtained to a dozen other firms, the Journal found…”
- 2011-02-18 update: As Wi-Fi hack becomes much more easier, you should enable HTTPS in Facebook by going to Account => Account Settings => Settings => Account Security => Secure Browsing (https).
- 2011-05-10 update: Symantec reported that “in certain cases, Facebook IFRAME applications inadvertently leaked access tokens to third parties like advertisers or analytic platforms. We estimate that as of April 2011, close to 100,000 applications were enabling this leakage”.
- 2011-09-29: Irish data protection commissioner will conduct a privacy audit on Facebook, after 22 complaints from Europe vs Facebook group.
- 2011-10-03: Nik Cubrilovic reported ‘Facebook re-enables controversial tracking cookies‘ datr, which could be used to tracked non-Facebook users on websites using Facebook social plugins (e.g., Like/Share buttons) even they do not use these features.
- Twitter: readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_avoid_malware_on_facebook_and_twitter_8_best_practices.php
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