February 2009 – The Social Media Security Podcast

Open letter to friends about… Facebook Friend Finder

Posted under Contributors on February 14th, 2009 by Scott Wright's Security Views

When I’m on social networking sites, and I see friends who are using features like the Facebook Friend Finder, here’s what I send them, privately…

Hi ,

I saw your post about using the Friend Finder. There are a couple of risks in using features of sites like Facebook, where they ask for your email address and password so they can “Find your friends”.

What the site will do is log in to your Yahoo (or whatever) email account and start searching through all your contacts for email address that match ones of other members. They may say they do this safely, but I don’t recommend giving your password from one site to another site.

They don’t actually guarantee that your password won’t be lost or abused.

They also have exposure to “all” your email contacts, and while they “say” they won’t send email without your permission, they won’t guarantee it either.

So, if a hacker breaks their security (and Facebook is a BIG target for hackers), then your email account (and if you’ve used the same password for other sites, them too) could be used in Identity Theft, and your email contacts could all start receiving dangerous spam that might lead to their identities being stolen.

I might be a bit paranoid, but I’d just like to see you avoid future annoyances and embarrassment.

I am now offering monthly briefings, tailored to organizations that want to build and sustain security awareness for staff. Just because your security team is too busy to do its own training and awareness doesn’t mean you can’t have an economical way to address human security risks. Please call or email me at the coordinates below…

Scott Wright

The Streetwise Security Coach

Join the Streetwise Security Zone at:
http://www.streetwise-security-zone.com/join.html

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Using 25 random things against you

Posted under Contributors, Social Networking on February 12th, 2009 by Tom

I have been seeing a bunch of friends on social networks filling out these “25 Random Things About Me” surveys. I just saw another one going around called “44 Odd Things About You” as well. I remember this similar type of activity passed along in email several years ago but now it’s made its way to social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Here is what the request looks like once you have been “tagged” by one of your friends:

RULES: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

This sounds fun and a good way to network with your friends, however, let me tell you why putting in this information might be a bad idea.

What’s the big deal? This is fun…right?
One of the basic rules everyone should be following when using social networks is that you should consider everything you post as public information. For example, would you write down these 25 random things about you, stick your name on it, make copies and put them in the mailboxes of complete strangers in your neighborhood? Are all of the people you are friends with truly your friends? Will they always be your friends? How is your profile configured? Have you looked at your “Notes” application settings in Facebook? More importantly, do you allow your profile to be searched by search engines? If you posted these 25 random things to your profile and/or wall, you may have inadvertently allowed these things to be found by total strangers. Remember, personal information on social networks always seems to get out even if you do use the correct privacy settings…sometimes through no fault of your own.

Can I haz your password plz?
With these 25 random things about you someone may even be able to use your answers to gain access to your email, other social networks, bank accounts, etc…why? Check out this list of questions that are asked when requesting a “lost password” or “password reset”. Many of these are from online banking and other sensitive web sites and looks similar to…25 random things about you.

Think this doesn’t happen? This type of attack did happen to Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin last year. A hacker was able to reset her Yahoo email account password using information he found on her publicly accessible Wikipedia page. Here is a quote from the Sarah Palin hacker:

“…after the password recovery was re enabled, it took seriously 45 mins on wikipedia and google to find the info, Birthday? 15 seconds on wikipedia, zip code? well she had always been from wasilla, and it only has 2 zip codes (thanks online postal service!)

the second was somewhat harder, the question was where did you meet your spouse? did some research, and apparently she had eloped with mister palin after college, if you look on some of the screenshots that I took…so graciously put on photobucket you will see the google search for palin eloped or some such in one of the tabs.

I found out later though more research that they met at high school, so I did variations of that, high, high school, eventually hit on Wasilla high I promptly changed the password to popcorn and took a cold shower”

This could happen to anyone! So by knowing some of your 25 random things, someone may be able to reset your passwords, impersonate you or even cyberstalk you. My advise? Don’t fill these things out or leave these surveys very general and not too detailed. Email might even be a safer place for this type of information…. Stop and think before you post overly detailed information about your life on social networks..it can all potentially be used against you.