Engage with a social networking site such as MySpace or Facebook, and you will undoubtedly change the way you spend your time online. Every time you visit and interact, you will leave a trace behind. You will expand your digital footprint. As you do this, you will acquire an online identity.Your digital profile will be born.
However unassuming or grand your digital profile is, however private or public, you can be certain of one thing: Your nuggets of information can be turned against you by hackers with malicious motives.
The tables have turned. 2006 was the year that cyber criminals shifted their attention from e-mail to web traffic. In that year, the ScanSafe Annual Global Threat Report noted an increase in spyware of 254 percent. The motives shifted as well. Over 65 percent of web virus attacks in 2006 aimed at gaining a financial benefit from unsuspecting users. Displaying technical prowess or causing online chaos was no longer the main driving factor for attacks.
It is little wonder that social networking sites, with attention grabbing headlines that by turns praise and condemn the social changes they are helping bring about, are gaining the attention of hackers looking to spread their malware.
The so-called Web 2.0 provides a grand platform from which to launch attacks. Social network sites, wikis, blogs, chat, RSS feeds, and instant messaging are, by their open nature, fertile ground for the distribution of malware. The more freely users interact and contribute content, the more information hackers have that can be used against them.
To limit your exposure and avoid being a target, it is wise to refrain from posting information that could make you vulnerable. This includes what others may be posting on you as well, for example, hobbies, addresses, memberships, routines, schedules, finances, employment – the possibilities are extensive. Only post information that you feel comfortable with anyone seeing since once you do so, you will not be able to fully retract it. Even if you remove it from a site, saved or cached versions may still exist elsewhere in the digital universe.