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Would You Use Facebook To Catch a Bad Guy?

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In Oklahoma, the OK state, an elderly couple was home invaded and held at knifepoint, and the woman was knocked to the ground. During the ensuing abuse, their home was robbed and the predator got away. Not OK.

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The police were notified and a description of the home invader was provided to the police. Shortly after, the victims’ granddaughter decided the best course of action would be to post the description on Facebook with the intent of spreading the word to catch him.

Due to the heinous actions of the thief and the fact he was on the loose, the Facebook post went viral, with over 9,000 shares in a short time. The perpetrator’s brother in-law (of all people) saw the Facebook posting and recognized the description, then quickly contacted the granddaughter, then called the police to report his relative. (I’d love to attend their Thanksgiving dinner. Must be a hootin,’ hollerin’ good time!)

Anyway, while justice was served, the local police frowned upon this type of viral APB. Seems the police have a good point, and the force’s public information officer stated, “Friends and family members of the suspect could see that and alert the individual we are out there looking for [him]. … The suspect then could try to hide, run away or even destroy evidence. We always want the public to contact the police first.”

Point well taken. To support the officer’s statement, one only need to look as far as the Boston Marathon bombing and the witch hunt that ensued when Reddit “investigators” accused the wrong guys of planting the bombs. One of them ended up dead a short while later for reasons that are still not clear to me.

What do you think? I think a burglar alarm may have prevented the whole drama from happening in the first place. But would you rely on the internet to help find the bad guy? I’m partial to a yes vote.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

Hackproof your facebook account

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With over one billion people connected to Facebook, we have to assume that many of them are criminals. (Criminals are people with friends too!) But the criminals we need to be concerned about are the ones who create all kinds of scams designed to do everything from getting us to open our wallets to clicking links so we enter our personal information that lets them infect our devices.

4DHere’s some insight as to what they may do to get access to you and your account:

Phishing: Emails coming into your inbox right now may in fact be coming from Facebook because by default, you allow that contact in your notifications settings. The problem is that at any time, scammers can duplicate these same emails and you may never know what’s real and what’s fake.

  • Never click links in Facebook emails. Instead, simply log in via your favorites menu or use a password manager. Anything you need to do is right there in your notifications menu.
  • Turn off email notifications. Do you really need 20 emails a day telling you that someone just liked or commented on what you posted? Seriously? Go feed the homeless if you have that much time on your hands.
  • Stay out of your spam folders. Most internet service providers and email providers to a pretty good job of filtering out spam and phishing emails. But if you go into spam and start clicking away, you’ll get yourself in trouble.

facebookInfected links: Criminals know how to get your attention to entice you to click links. They create copy that is supposed to elicit emotional responses that send you deep into their rabbit hole. This status update is a perfect example of someone who is now infected because the user probably clicked on this and is now sharing it with everyone else, just like a virus. Everything about this screams CLICK ME!

  • Don’t mindlessly click links simply because you need to know what they’re going to show you. Be conscious about scams and fraud, and know scammers are paying attention.
  • Keep your browsers up to date, as well as your antivirus, antispyware, antiphishing and a firewall.

Wireless hacks: Whenever using a free WiFi connection, there is always the possibility your device, its data and your accounts can be compromised. Free WiFi is not secure; it has no encryption, and your data is right there for criminals to sniff.

  • Set up encryption on your home or office router. At a minimum, use WPA or WPA2 encryption to secure your data.
  • Use a VPN (virtual private network) such as Hotspot Shield VPN that locks down and encrypts your wireless communications.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to Hotspot Shield VPN. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him discussing internet and wireless security on Good Morning America. Disclosures. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247.

4 Completely Different Ways to Share Photos

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Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, people took pictures of the Tyrannosaurus Rex with film-based cameras that required them to drop their pics off at a Fotomat for processing. Then, instant pics in the form of Polaroid cameras came along and the term “instant gratification” was born. Today, most of us snap pics on phones because cameras are just another device that we don’t want to carry.

Now, documenting a person’s day, week, month, year, vacation or any event consists of hundreds if not thousands of photos because digital is easy and free. So what’s the best way to share all your pics in a fun, friendly and secure way? Well, that all depends on your lifestyle.

  • Facebook: When taking pics from your phone, you can easily upload and instantly share your images with your connections. The beauty of Facebook photos is that all 3,000 of your friends can enjoy them and comment on them. Using your PC is even easier when you are uploading entire albums. The bad thing is, once you upload to Facebook, you can’t expect the photos to ever be private. Even though you might lock down your privacy settings so only your friends can see them, it’s still very possible that your pics can be leaked.
  • Flickr: Flickr is a photo sharing site that you can always have in your back pocket via apps for iPhone, Windows 7, Android and more. Or use m.flickr.com from any mobile device to upload and share photos on the go. Share photos only with the people you want to with Flickr’s easy privacy settings. Flickr’s backed storage system makes sure you never lose another photo again.
  • Instagram: Share your photos in a simple photo stream with friends to see – and follow your friends’ photos with the click of a single button. Every day you open up Instagram, you’ll see new photos from your closest friends, and creative people from around the world. Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr too – it’s as easy as pie. It’s photo sharing, reinvented.
  • Dropbox: Most people don’t think of photo sharing when they think about Dropbox because Dropbox isn’t explicitly a photo sharing site. Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring together all your photos, docs and videos from anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website.

All of these sites require usernames and passwords for access. And like all web-based portals, I suggest a different password for each. If you install an application on your mobile, make sure your device is password protected. Another layer of protection (albeit inconvenient) is to set up these apps to require a password every time you access them.

Robert Siciliano, is a personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto and author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Mobile was Hacked! . Disclosures

Fake Friends Fool Facebook Users

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The word friend is defined as “one who entertains for another such sentiments of esteem, respect and affection; an intimate associate.” But that definition seems to have gone out the window with the advent of social networks.

Studies show 50% of people will accept a Facebook “friend” or LinkedIn invitation from a total stranger. So do you consider the hundreds of friends on these social networks as people who you have an intimate affection for? Probably not.

This is why fraudsters have set up 15 million fake profiles that are used for spam and fraud. Just about anyone can set up a fake account on just about any website. Facebook and other social media sites are popular targets due to the amount of users on those sites and how much time people spend on those sites.

People share an awful lot of information including their birth date, high school, email, phone number, pet’s name, kids’ names, maiden name and more on social networking sites. The fraudsters then use this information to send you phishing messages to try and get access to your accounts and passwords. And, since these messages appear like they “know” you, they seem more legitimate and you are more apt to trust the message.
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What can you do? Be a good friend to yourself and your true friends. Protect yourself.

Only friend people you know in the physical world, ones that you like and trust.

Beware of offers with the word “free” or that sound too good to be true.

Stop and think before you click. Be wary of links in chat, text and email as this is one of the main ways hackers can “hook” you.

Protect your devices. Use up-to-date, comprehensive security software on all your devices that has a safe search plug-in to protect you from going to malicious sites.

Robert Siciliano is an Online Security Expert to McAfee. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Mobile was Hacked!  (Disclosures)

Protect Your Facebook Photos

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Imagine you have a baby and want to share your newborn’s photos with your Facebook friends and family all across the country. You snap the pictures and post and receive lots of fun and exciting feedback.

Then a week later you are scanning Craigslist to buy some second hand baby stuff like strollers and maybe baby clothes. In the process of searching “baby” you see an ad for “ADOPT MY NEWBORN” and out of  curiosity you click the ad and see a picture of your child!!!!

This has happened and will happen again. People are weird and do weird things with your images.

Yes, your digital assets can be stolen and used without your permission. In general, if its digital. It’s repeatable which means it can be downloaded, copied, pasted etc. And up until now, there wasn’t much consumers could do about that.

Just because your Facebook profile is set to “Private” doesn’t mean that your photos can’t go public. McAfee® Social Protection safeguards your Facebook photos by letting you control exactly who can view them.

When you upload your photos using the app, your photos will appear blurry and indistinguishable to people you don’t know. What’s more, no one –not even your friends and family who you’ve granted access to your photos– can save, print, download or screen capture them.  It also disables the share button preventing further displays of your pictures without your permission.

In short, your photos, stay your photos.

Pretty cool. Go to the McAfee Facebook page and check out McAfee Social Protection today!

Robert Siciliano is an Online Security Expert to McAfee. See him discussing identity theft on YouTube.(Disclosures)

How To Recover a Hacked Facebook Account

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At least weekly some stressed out victim of a Facebook hack a.k.a “account takeover”, contacts me to help them get their account back in order. While I do have a connection or two at Facebook, I’m not in a position to send an email or flip a switch and make it all good just like that. Facebook doesn’t allow that.

The victim of the hack is in the best position to fix it themselves.

First, be proactive. Set up your computer with auto updates for your operating system, anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-spyware and have a 2-way firewall turned on and lock down your wireless connection.

Facebook offers a number of security features, Use all of them. Take screenshots of your settings and contact info, print them, and store them in a secure place.

Opt-in security features:

Trusted Friends

What are trusted friends?

Trusted friends are friends you can reach out to if you ever get locked out of your Facebook account (ex: you turn on login approvals and then lose your phone, you forget your Facebook password and can’t get into your login email account to receive a password reset). If you get locked out, we’ll send each of your trusted friends a security code. All you need to do is call your friends and collect the codes.

Secure Browsing (https)

What is Secure Browsing (https)? What are the benefits?

Secure Browsing (https) is an opt-in security feature. When you turn this feature on, your traffic (i.e. all of your activity) on Facebook becomes encrypted, making it harder for anyone else to access your Facebook information without your permission.

Login Notifications

What are Login Notifications?

Login Notifications are an opt-in security feature where alerts are sent to you each time your account is accessed from a new device.

To turn on Login Notifications:

Go to your Security Settings page (Account > Account Security > Security)

Click on the Login Notifications section

Check the box next to the type of alerts you’d like to receive and save your changes

Note: If you want to receive text message alerts, you’ll need to add a mobile number to your account.

Login Approvals

What is Login Approvals?

Login Approvals is an opt-in security feature similar to Login Notifications, but with an extra security step. With Login Approvals, each time you try to access your Facebook account from an unrecognized device (ex: any computer or mobile phone you haven’t named and saved to your Facebook account), you will first have to enter a security code we’ve sent to your mobile phone.

To turn on Login Approvals:

Go to your Security Settings page (Account > Account Security > Security)

Click on the Login Approvals section

Check the box and save your changes

If all else fails go here: https://www.facebook.com/hacked this is the system Facebook has in place to help you get your account back regardless of if the hacker changed your email address.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of Identity Theft Privacy: Security Protection and Fraud Prevention: Your Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft and Computer Fraud. See him knock’em dead in this Security Awareness Training video.

Back Up Google And Facebook Data

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We are increasingly reliant on online calendars and address books, but when you store everything in the cloud, there is the possibility that your essential data could evaporate.

Some insist that you have nothing to worry about but what if you got hacked and all your data was deleted? What if you temporarily lost Internet access, but you need your contacts or calendars?

Backing up any type of vital data is always a smart decision.  Here’s a few simple and inexpensive tools to back-up data you’ve stored in the cloud:

MyCube Vault, for Mac or Windows, is a free utility that backs up your Facebook data, Google Contacts, and Picasa photos and albums at regular intervals. You choose how frequently and where your data should be saved. Once you have installed the app and authorized it to access each of the services you want to back up, the process is painless and automatic. If you’re concerned about downtime or wary of keeping your data in the cloud, MyCube Vault is worth a look.

Backupify, for Google Apps, keeps independent backups of all your Google Apps data, where it can’t be stolen, corrupted or deleted, even by your own domain users. You can search, download, and restore your Google Apps data any time. Backupify offers a free trial.

In addition to using a cloud-based backup storage service, you should also back up this data locally on an external drive.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto, discusses hackers hacking hotels on CNBC. Disclosures

Facebook Commenting Only Keeps the Honest, Honest

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You’re probably familiar with the comments sections of blogs and online newspapers. It’s where people write nice, harmonious, agreeable comments about the article, the article’s author, and the President. No, wait that must have been a dream I had.

I have always felt that a lack of accountability in the commenting process unfortunately brings out the worst in people. Today, anonymous Internet commentary is similar to prank phone calls prior to the introduction of caller ID.

Of course, what is or is not appropriate depends on one’s political, social, and economic perspective, and in many cases, anonymous comments can influence the direction of an online dialogue. Some commenters rely on their anonymity to avoid angering their employers. But most do so in order to freely post awful comments, because they themselves are not so nice. Writers put themselves out there every day, exposing themselves to the world, subject to every person’s inner mean side, cloaked in cowardly anonymity.

Facebook has rolled out a tool that allows any website to attach faces to comments, which would create a certain degree of accountability.

According to InfoWorld, “TechCrunch, which implemented Facebook Comments as an experiment, reports that while the total volume of comments is down significantly, the comment nastiness quotient is approaching zero – except, apparently, for nasty comments about their new commenting system.”

I see this as a positive. There is enough nastiness in the world and we all need to tone it down. Do your research on this issue. There are plenty of colorful opinions on what Facebook Commenting may mean. Many are for it, and many more are against.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing social media identity theft on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

The Consequences of a Teacher’s Facebook Comments

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We should all know by now that nothing you post on Facebook is private. You may have gone through all the privacy settings to thoroughly lock down your profile, but even so, you can never be sure that your posts will remain hidden. Facebook alters their privacy settings so frequently, you never know when or how the defaults will change. No matter how strict your privacy settings are, accepting a friend request from a stranger (who may be a human resource officer, for example) allows him or her to see your private comments, which can always be easily copied, pasted, and shared with the world.

The New York Post reported, that a Brooklyn NY teacher said some bad stuff regarding her fifth-graders referencing the death of a 12-year-old Harlem school girl who drowned on a class trip.

While on a field trip, the teacher used her Blackberry to post, “After today, I’m thinking the beach is a good trip for my class. I hate their guts.” When a Facebook friend asked, “Wouldn’t you throw a life jacket to little Kwami?” she wrote back, “No, I wouldn’t for a million dollars.”

Yikes!

Normally, this is when I would explain that it is never a good idea to announce to the world how much you hate your boss, neighbor, students’ teachers, or spouse, and that you’d like to boil a bunny on the stove to teach them a lesson. I guarantee that even if you are kidding, someone will be offended. Everything you do on the Internet lasts forever.

However, I’d rather encourage anyone with a position of authority and responsibility for others to please, go ahead and post your feelings, thoughts, and motivations as loudly and as clearly as possible. We want to know who you really are. It’s best that you come out of the closet now, so you can be removed from your position if necessary.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing sharing too much information online on Fox News. Disclosures.

Software Makes Dumbphones Smart for Facebook

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Facebook for SIM, from Gemalto enables anyone to enjoy Facebook on all handsets, even if without a data connection or data subscription. With this technology, Gemalto brings Facebook to millions of mobile phone users regardless of their handset type.

“Increasingly people want to be able to stay connected and communicate with their friends on Facebook anytime, anywhere,” said Henri Moissinac, Head of Mobile Business, Facebook. “Gemalto has developed a creative solution in Facebook for SIM that enables people without mobile data plans to stay connected to their friends on Facebook in an affordable way.”

Gemalto’s software development team has embedded the software application into the SIM. This ensures the Facebook application is compatible with 100% of SIM-compliant mobile phones.

From Wikipedia: “A subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module (SIM) on a removable SIM card securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) used to identify a subscriber on mobile telephony devices (such as mobile phones and computers). The SIM card allows users to change phones by simply removing the SIM card from one mobile phone and inserting it into another mobile phone or broadband telephony device.”

The innovative solution provides mobile subscribers with simple and convenient access to core Facebook features such as friend requests, status updates, wall posts or messages. It also offers unique functions: people can sign up for this service and log in directly from the SIM application. Interactive Facebook messages pop-up on the phone’s screen so people can always share up-to-the-minute posts and events. One can also automatically search their SIM phonebook for other friends and send them requests.

Facebook for SIM is extremely easy to use and is available to everyone. No data contract or application download is needed, because the software is embedded in the SIM and it uses SMS technology. As a result, it works for prepaid as well as for pay-monthly customers. Following an initial limited free trial period, Facebook for SIM then operates on a subscription model via an unlimited pass for a given period of time.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto. Disclosures