We’ve Moved!

The Social Media Security Podcast has been recently changed to the Shared Security Podcast.  For details on this move please read this blog post.  Your current podcast subscription should automatically update via iTunes or other podcast player.  Want to listen or subscribe to old Social Media Security Podcast episodes? Check out our archive page. Show descriptions are noted below on this website.

Please follow us on our new Twitter and like us on our updated Facebook page.  Our new website is located at sharedsecurity.net. Thanks for listening to the podcast over the years and we look forward to many more!

-Shared Security Podcast Hosts, Scott Wright and Tom Eston

The New Facebook Graph Search: How to Protect Your Privacy

Over the last several months, Facebook has been making significant design and UI changes. Besides the newsfeed changes announced several weeks ago, Facebook has recently begun rolling out a large change in the way you search for information through the platform. While this feature is still in “beta” status, you can tell if you have the new Graph Search by looking at the top left side of your Facebook profile (Figure 1). You will see a search area called “Search for people, places and things”.

 

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Figure 1 – Location of the Facebook Graph Search on Your Profile Page

 

The Facebook Graph Search is a new implementation of search which retrieves information that comes from Facebook’s Graph. This new feature brings powerful capabilities for finding out more about your friends’ “likes” and activities. It also provides attackers with a more efficient way to glean information for social engineering attacks and other intelligence gathering activities.

What’s the Facebook Graph?

Think of the Facebook Graph as a very large database of personal information from (literally) a billion Facebook users. This information is categorized by what you and your friends like as well as what you’ve posted, what’s in your profile, locations you’ve visited, and tagged pictures. The Facebook Graph has evolved over the years in order to correlate as much information as possible, making it very easy to search.

What’s the Privacy Concern?

The issue is that anything you’ve ever posted publically, “Liked,” or were ever tagged in can be quickly searched. Additionally, other information that you’ve posted in your profile, such as your hometown, relationship status, and employer now become searchable. For example, those party pictures you were tagged in four years ago doing things you would never do anymore can be searched by your friends and possibly the friends of your friends; or worse, anyone with a Facebook account.

The Graph Search opens up lots of new and interesting search possibilities that we’ve yet to see on a social network. Here’s one example: Suppose you are a single male looking for single females. You can simply search for “photos of friends of my friends who are single and female” and find pictures of all the single females that are friends of your friends. Interesting, huh? How about the intelligence gathering aspects of these types of searches? For example, search for “<Insert Company> employees located in <Insert City> and you will have a list of targets for social engineering or more. For some other eye opening searches, I recommend you read this blog which shows some interesting privacy ramifications of creative searches.

How to Protect Your Privacy

First, check out Facebook’s “Activity Log” (Figure 2) which can be found under Privacy Settings and Tools in your Privacy Settings.

 

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Figure 2 – Location of Facebook’s Activity Log

 

Next, if you want to change the privacy settings for all posts you’ve shared with Friends of Friends or with the Public, you can select “Limit Past Posts,” which will automatically change the privacy settings on all past posts (Figure 3).

 

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Figure 3 – Selecting “Limit Past Posts” changes privacy settings for all posts set to Friends of Friends or Public

 

 

You will also want to make sure you review the following items in your Activity Log (Figure 4): Your Posts (especially those set to Public or Friends of Friends), Posts You’re Tagged In, Posts by Others, and Your Photos. It doesn’t hurt to also review your Likes to make sure there is nothing you liked that you don’t want coming up in a search.

 

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Figure 4 – Items to Review in Your Activity Log

 

Lastly, carefully review your Facebook Privacy settings especially if you haven’t looked at them in a while. The Facebook Graph Search makes these settings more important than ever. Be sure to download SecureState’s recently revised Facebook Privacy & Security Guide which walks you through the recommended privacy settings while still allowing you to be social. The updated guide includes details on Facebook Graph Search and other important privacy settings. I encourage you to share this guide with friends and family.

Looking For More Information on Social Media Privacy?

SecureState has just released a comprehensive whitepaper by Ken Smith of SecureState’s Profiling & Penetration Team entitled “The Problem with Privacy”. I highly recommend you download and read this whitepaper to find out what the latest threats to your privacy are when using Social Media.

Cross-Posted from the SecureState Blog

Social Media Security Website and Podcast Reloaded!

Since 2009, I’ve been maintaining the popular Facebook Privacy & Security Guide that has been used by several universities and government agencies as well as regular users of Facebook.  If you’re not familiar with my guide, it’s a simple two page handout that walks you through recommended privacy and security settings for your Facebook profile.

The guide has been a labor of love but also required frequent updates since Facebook has drastically changed the privacy controls as well as the layout within the Facebook platform over the years.  Needless to say it’s been tough to keep the guide updated and also tough to keep it to a single page so that it can be easily distributed.  Today, I’m happy to announce that my company SecureState is now officially sponsoring the guide so that it can be maintained with frequent updates!  Having said that, I’m announcing today the release of the fourth version of the Facebook Privacy & Security Guide, updated with the latest information on Facebook’s privacy and security settings.  Please download and distribute to friends and family.

Also around the same time I started the guide, I started the Social Media Security website and podcast.  The podcast is still being recorded monthly and co-hosted by myself and Scott Wright.  Today we also released our 30th episode along with a website redesign for socialmediasecurity.com.  I’d like to thank the podcast’s new sponsor SecureState for the new design and support of the podcast.  Special thanks go to DigiP over at Tick Tock Computers for putting together a great site redesign and logo.  I look forward to recording more podcasts and getting the word out on how to safely use social media!

The Slow Web

The Slow Web

Jack Cheng maps out a positive vision for a “slow” type of web app:

Timely not real-time. Rhythm not random. Moderation not excess. Knowledge not information. These are a few of the many characteristics of the Slow Web. It’s not so much a checklist as a feeling, one of being at greater ease for the web-enabled products and services in our lives.

Inside Google’s Plan to Build a Catalog of Every Single Thing, Ever

Inside Google’s Plan to Build a Catalog of Every Single Thing, Ever

Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic on Google’s Knowledge Graph:

This is one of those human knowledge projects that is ridiculous in scope and possibly in impact. And yet when it gets turned into a consumer product, all we see is a useful module for figuring out Tom Cruise’s height more quickly. In principle, this is both good and bad. It’s good because technology should serve human needs and we shouldn’t worship the technology itself. It’s bad because it’s easy to miss out on the importance of the infrastructure and ideology that are going to increasingly inform the way Google responds to search requests. And given that Google is many people’s default portal to the world of information, even a subtle change in the company’s toolset is worth considering.

And that’s how I found myself on the phone with John Giannandrea discussing mojitos and semantic graphs.

Sounds like another stab at the Semantic Web. It’ll be interesting to see how Facebook’s Open Graph actions play out in this space as well.

Facebook Privacy and Security Article on ConsumerReports

I wanted to pass along a really good article on Facebook Privacy that was released on ConsumerReports.org.  There are some good quotes from others in the security and privacy community including Kevin Johnson and Ed Skoudis.  Check out the article here:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/06/facebook-your-privacy/index.htm

 

Facebook Privacy & Security Guide Updated to v3.0

I’ve finally updated the Facebook Privacy & Security Guide to version 3.0.  This is a major revision which includes directions on how to set the latest privacy and security controls in Facebook.  Maintaining this guide has been challenging over the last year as Facebook has made major changes multiple times in regards to the way privacy settings are enabled.  Having said that, this is a great time to use my guide and review what your privacy settings are.  Things like enabling secure browsing, login approvals and limiting the audience to what you post are more important then ever.

As always, feel free to distribute this guide to friends and family!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Download v3.0 of the Facebook Privacy & Security Guide here

The race for the most personal Twitter followers

I have had a great reply on this topic while going around the USA talking about social media security.  During my talk I give an example of why it is NOT okay to allow just anyone the right to follow you or vise versa.

I choose a volunteer out of the crowd.  Usually a nice looking woman because…why not.  I give a hypothetical situation.  We were dating and things are starting to get serious.  So serious that I take her to meet my mom for the first time. While we are at my ma’s house, I introduce her to my new brother-in-law.  My brother-in-law was in charge of bringing the dinner rolls and once again forgot.  He asks her to go to the Italian (not french) bakery down the road with him to get these rolls.  She says yes.  While they are picking up the rolls he notices that he forgot his wallet and asked her for $4.98 to cover the rolls.  She just happens to have $5.00 in her left pocket.

Would she give him the $5.00 and why?

The answer has always been “yes” and because he is associated or was introduced to her by me.  There is an applied level of trust set prior to them going to the bakery.  Well this level of trust in my opinion can be accomplished within twitter.  If I follow you and we start having a friendly conversation(your favorite sports team) I will then go after your friends and family for a small amount to help me with my “cure/run/walk”.  All I have to do is introduce myself as your friend as they can see our past conversations in twitter.  I  have had a over 90% success rate of getting their followers to click my cause link.  This success is based on the applied trust between two strangers.  So although it is really #kwel to have 70,000 twitter followers it can also cost your friends and family $4.98

For more information feel free…info@unixbox.ws

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