Will The Internet Betray You - Are Social Networks Your Friend or Foe?

Not long ago, I was discussing with an overseas acquaintance the reality that so much of who we are is now online that you can go look up just about anyone and learn all about them. Today, there are conspiracy theorists who say the NSA is creating a dossier on every American in the country, which may or may not be so, but if it is, why would they stop there? Why not all planetary humans? Talk about the data base from hell, that would be a whopper, and something like that misused could literally create hell on Earth, especially for those who have come to expect freedom and liberty during their life experience.

Now then, my acquaintance had assumed that I went online to look up all the information about him, which was a false assumption, you see I hadn't. Not that there wasn't any curiosity there, it's just that I had other things to do, and since our conversation was light-weight, it didn't matter anyway. He noted that there was ample information online to verify who he was, what he had done in his life, and thus, his potential to perhaps work on one of our up and coming projects. Still, he noted that he tried to keep his online information to a minimum, but admitted he couldn't hide everything considering today's Internet.

Yes, the Internet is interesting, sometimes I think it is our friend, other times, I wonder if it is the enemy, as I see friends posting on Facebook etc, which I do not participate. You see, right now those behind all this Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Social Networking phenomena are busy trying to figure out how to best exploit all this data, so it should not surprise anyone all the behind the scenes activities with big time corporations, advertisers, marketing companies, and yes, intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Not just here, but around the world.

Consider this, your data, information, contacts, associations, etc. could be shared by foreign nations, international criminals, multi-national companies, and it already is to a lesser degree, but what I am saying is this will become the norm, and you'll just have to accept all this. So, I guess you ought to be asking yourself if the Internet and the social networks you play on are ever going to betray you in the future. Are those social media sites, and social networks your friend or foe? Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Internet Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Cyber-crime Goes Social and Mobile

'Cyber-crime', a word most of us know; but a better clarification on the same is good before we begin. Cyber-crime holds a broad array of activities or incidents, some of which include computer viruses or malicious software, forging, spoofed/fake email or website which captures personal details, online bullying/ stalking, hate crime or other form of online harassment, hacking into personal profile/account, scams, online credit card fraud, identity theft, an unsolicited SMS text messages, and so on.

As above, Cyber-crime can be anything, which includes data theft or breach, without the owner's permission. As consumers go mobile, so do criminals. Hence, compared to the earlier attempts of cyber-crime over Desktops, now attackers are more oriented on mobile and social networking. A mixture of socially engineered and blended attacks is what attackers are now using.

Cyber-crime over Mobile device
News like 'iPhone 5 Pre-Orders Top Two Million in First 24 Hours' displays how indispensable mobile devices have become for us today. According to the '2012 Norton Cyber-crime Report', every 2 of 3 adult uses a mobile device to connect to the internet today. The increase on mobile usage is also realized by the Cyber-criminals.

The bait that attracts cyber-criminals is not the vast usage of mobiles but also the numerous hidden vulnerabilities in them. Mobile vulnerabilities doubled in 2011 over 2010. That in itself is alarming. But apart from these facts, the matter to worry more is the fact that 44% people aren't even aware that security solutions exist for mobile devices. Every 2 out of 3 persons don't have security for their mobile devices. Using unsecured Wi-Fi connections is yet another source of vulnerabilities.

Socially engineered Cyber-crime
Apart from Mobile, with increasing usage of social media, cyber-criminals are also going social now. Figures say that, every 4 people out of 10 people have been a victim of cyber crime through social sites. While some complain their accounts have been hacked, others are concerned about their accounts being eyed upon. Apart from this, 1/3rd of the population using social networking sites have fallen victim to the scams on such sites.

The major reasons behind most attacks through social platforms are:

1/3rd of the users don't log out from one session1/5th among the users don't check the link before clicking on it1/6th people aren't aware about their privacy settings, and lastlyLess than half don't use any security measures to protect their accounts.

Apart from these issues, 36% users accept friend requests from strangers, increasing their vulnerabilities.

What can be done?
Social sites are taking a toll on our personal lives. Numbers say 16% would end a relationship, as a reason of something they didn't like about the person online. Hence being on your marks and taking measures to ensure good privacy settings is helpful. Measures like deleting suspicious mails/comments/links, use a basic anti-virus, avoid opening attachments from unknown senders, and so on; can be highly useful.

Take pro-active steps to secure you personal data online. If you won't; no one would. If something is too good to believe, then you may be right; I am talking about advertisements and applications appearing on social sites, which trick users, with lucrative statements and promises. Be on your guard by staying informed. Use strong passwords, and make it a habit to change them often. Efforts taken by you to protect your data will surely increase the difficulty levels for criminals to attack you. Fear of attacks should never deprive anyone of the huge benefits of using internet through mobile devices and networking socially. Hence ensure security measures and reap the benefits to your fullest.

Note: Majority of figures/statistics used in this article are from 2012 Norton Cybercrime Report

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Also you may subscribe to Cyberoam Blog, for more news and updates on Cyber-crime, recent attacks and more.

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As Social Networks Move Into the Human Brain It Could Cause the Decrease of White Matter

In the future, not more than perhaps three decades from now your social online interaction will not be on a computer screen, rather it will involve an interface, perhaps an embedded chip in your brain. You and your friends can "thought swap" to send messages, not text messages but full on visuals, and since a picture is worth 1000 words, you will be able to communicate so fast your head will spin. Of course, some hacker will come along, or the government will want to make sure you are only thinking proper thoughts. Okay so let's talk about this for second shall we?

No, I'm not trying to scare you into some type of future scenario, or science fiction horror thriller, I'm just telling you what the capabilities of the technology will be in the future. Thus, perhaps we should talk a little bit about privacy laws in the future concept that your thoughts will be monitored, so be careful what you're thinking. There is an interesting book you should read titled; "Privacy" by Garrett Keizer which talks about the state of the current technology, big data, big marketers, and government snooping all the name of homeland security. It's well worth a read, and therefore I recommend it.

Now then, if you have a chip in your brain, you'll have to learn how to hide certain thoughts, but if you have too much white matter, or you are bipolar and the two hemispheres of your brain are constantly communicating, you will not be able to hide those thoughts at all, or keep them to yourself. Therefore those that can keep their thoughts to themselves, or hide those thoughts within their brain, perhaps they have some sort of brain disorder or the right enzyme ratios leading to the proper gene expression, well, they'll have the advantage.

With this advantage will come greater social mobility, greater wealth, and perhaps along the same line as the famous Dr. Hare's research on psychopaths. Because these individuals will have the advantage, they are likely to spur on more offspring, or create more clones of themselves, therefore there will be an overall decrease in the white matter of the most successful people. Of course, I'm just taking this out and playing it into the future considering some of the potential possibilities - who knows how the future will actually unfold, but realize I also dabble in science fiction writing.

Nevertheless, evolution always favors the gene expressions with the advantage so, in this case being able to hide thoughts from the implanted chip will become invaluable to maintaining privacy. Those that can maintain their privacy will definitely have the advantage. We are already seeing that today. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Internet Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Norton Coupon Antivirus Vs Virus Attack From Social Networking Websites

Do you know that so many people's computer files are trapped because of viruses that targeted on social networking website?

Do you know that survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute reveals that use of networking websites can increase user's vulnerability to identity theft because of the personal information people share on various social networking websites?

Based on security researchers, one virus currently targeting at users of social networking is apparently aiming at Facebook. The malware came comes in through a wall post and any account actually link to the wall post might be hijacked prior to the dispatcher of the messages. Though the messages does not contain virus, but have a link in the message that leads on to a virus contaminated website.

A security software firm currently reveals how Facebook gaming software farm-town or Farm-ville is exhibiting adverts containing virus contaminated website links. When the advertisement links is been clicked the user is inform that his/her PC is infected with a malware and suggest that the user must scrutinize it through a related malicious website. These malware can either destroy the user's hard drives or gather the user personal data without the user's knowledge (that I call stealing by trick).

Furthermore, Google Social Networking platform known as Orkut was also hit by a worm called "Bom Sabado". (which means "Good Saturday in Portuguese and Brazil). The worm was a java script virus that spreads automatically on its own through Orkut Scraps.

The worm auto creates messages that might look like scrap from your buddy. The hidden malicious java code with scrap hacks into anyone's profile that clicks on the scrap page. It then steals the person's browser cookies and spread itself by posting similar scraps to other users on the person profile using his/her name.

However you can be sure of full protection from any online identity theft, hacker, malware or virus by having a good antivirus software solution that is well up to date and can frequently scan your personal computer, laptop and Smartphone's etc. This without doubt is the best defense you can have against viruses from social networking websites, emails or any other suspicious website links.

Come to think of it, users devoted to social networking websites are on the increase daily. Websites such as, Facebook with more than 500 million active users and Myspace with 110 million monthly active users and is continuously expanding daily.

Although virus and hackers has become a global threat, there sure ways to avoid getting you account hack or infected by virus. there are good antivirus that can help you out. Are you thinking of what antivirus possibly use that has stand the test of time durable, less cost effective and efficient in service? 50% Off Coupons if the link refuse to work please copy this link and paste it on your browser http://www.nortoncouponx.com/

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