Seven Deadly Sins of Social Networking

I have a professional Twitter account (follow me at Rachel4Triad) as well as a personal Facebook account and I know  I am guilty of a few of these mistakes. I received this email “Seven Deadly Sins of Social Networking Security” from a co-worker and I thought I’d pass it along to you bloggers out there. It seems there is a fine line between keeping your personal information personal and secure and reconnecting or networking with others. I don’t know that I would say that I’m addicted to the social networking sites but I do make a point to check in with them at least once a day. In some cases, as with my college roommates, it’s the primary way we keep in touch. Sometimes even when I’m on the phone with my dad, he’ll refer to something I tweeted or posted on my facebook page and I’ll wonder, “how did he even know about that?” Then I’ll remember that other people do actually read my pages just as you are reading this blog. So as I’m writing it, I feel somewhat protected that my thoughts are my personal thoughts, I realize I am letting other people get to know who I am – some of those readers I know and some are otherwise complete strangers. I realize as I standing in line at the grocery store that I wouldn’t dream of telling the checker or the person standing behind me about the sale I just closed or about the fact that have a pile of laundry still because I was too busy this past holiday weekend to get to it but somehow if I type it here or on one of the social networking sites that’s essentially what I’m doing.

If I could tell you anything right now what would it be? Well I’d tell you that I’m enjoying my job as a sales person and ask you to introduce me to 5 people you know that you think might have a need for security in their business. Is there someone you know who works in an office building – perhaps they are a tenant in an office park? Do you know someone who recently complained at work that people were dumping furniture or household garbage into their company’s dumpster over the weekend? Is there a company that recently had layoffs and is concerned about former employees having access to the building after hours? I’d like to meet all these people.

Until then, however, surf safely. Don’t put yourself in a vulnerable position that may result in a dangerous circumstance. If you have any other tips on how to keep secure online, I’d love to hear about them. For example, I know on Facebook, you can set your level of security/privacy and only allow your friends to be able to see your posts. Twitter gives you the option of having to approve followers before they can see your Tweets. These are just a couple in the vast cyberspace where so many of us spend so much of our waking hours.

From: www.csoonline.com

Seven Deadly Sins of Social Networking Security

To users of LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or all of the above: Are you guilty of one of these security oversights?

by Bill Brenner, Senior Editor, CSO

June 30, 2009

Admit it: You are currently addicted to social networking. Your drug of choice might be Facebook or Twitter, or maybe Myspace or LinkedIn. Some of you are using all of the above, and using them hard, even IT security practitioners who know better.

While it's impossible to escape every social networking threat out there, there are steps one can take to significantly reduce the risks. CSOonline recently checked in with dozens of IT security professionals (ironically, using more than one social networking platform to do so) to pinpoint seven typical security mistakes people make; and how to avoid them.

1.    Over-sharing company activities
This is a sin of pride, when someone gets excited about something their company is working on and simply must tell everyone about it. Maybe you work for a drug company that is on the verge of developing the cure for cancer. Maybe the company is developing a new car that runs on curbside trash -- in other words, something everyone will want.

By sharing too much about your employer's intellectual property, you threaten to put it out of business by tipping off a competitor who could then find a way to duplicate the effort or find a way to spoil what they can't have by hiring a hacker to penetrate the network or by sneaking a spy into the building.

Then there are hackers controlling legions of botnets that could be programmed to scour a company's defenses and, upon finding a weakness, exploit it to access data on the intellectual property. With the data in hand, the hacker can then sell what they have to the highest bidder, which just might be your biggest competitor.

"Sharing this kind of information could lead to targeted attacks on specific technology-producing enterprises," says Souheil Mouhammad, a senior security expert at Altran Technologies.

This sin has sparked a debate in the security industry about whether companies need to revise their employee computer use policies with more specific language on what is/isn't allowed in the social networking arena.

To reign in the urge to share too much, it might be useful to repeat this saying, which has started to appear in the public domain: "Loose Tweets Sink Fleets."

2.    Mixing personal with professional
This sin is closely related to the first, but extends beyond the mere disclosure of company data. This is the case where someone uses a social network for both business and pleasure, most commonly on Facebook, where one's friends include business associates, family members and friends.

The problem is that the language and images one shares with friends and family may be entirely inappropriate on the professional side. A prospective employer may choose to skip to the next candidate after seeing pictures of you drunk or showing off a little too much leg at someone's birthday party. In sharing such things, you a