Do not put too much information on social network service

social network service opens a door for us to the whole world. On the contrary, it brings dangerous, too. When you looking at outside, do never forget that there must be shadow somewhere when there is sunshine.

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THE RISE OF SNS

Social Network Services have made

communication between people not only

convenient, but across the world speedily. It

provides a wide platform for people to make

new friends and express their feelings. People

can know how their friends are going on

immediately even though far from their

locations. They think the SNSs are trustworthy

so they put so much private information on the

social network sites. According to the report of

Criminal Use of Social Media, before 2012,

there were 750 million users on Facebook, 500

million users on YouTube, and 200 million users

on Twitter.

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BUT, DO NOT FORGET THE DARK SIDE

The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook was sending user names to advertisers when the users click on advertisements— a practice that has attracted Federal Trade Commission attention as well as angry user response

66% of them did not know the existence of

privacy controls of Facebook and they

even did not know how to set up the

privacy control. 15% of Americans have

never checked the privacy setting of their

account on SNSs. 72%of teenagers have

SNS profiles and the profiles of 47% of

them are open to public

an online security consultant named Ron Bowles shocked everyone in 2010 by posting 100 million Facebook users’ personal information on the internet. Bowles used a program to scan 500 million Facebook profiles that was open to public. And finally he got a numerous of user IDs, names, URLs and all other privacy information and downloaded them

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THEIR AIM—YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION

Your private information includes a lot of things: your account number, your password, your name, your age, your phone number, your salary, your hobby, what car you have, what you do during weekends ………

And those information can be used to implement crimes!!! Like cheating people who know you. They can be another “you” in the world of internet.

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STORIES CAN ENLIGHTEN US

On January 21, 2009, a person whose name is Bryan Rutberg had his

Facebook account hijacked. His Facebook page was modified to show a

status that said “BRYAN IS IN URGENT NEED ON HELP!!” Then the

hacker sent out messages to his friends as they came online, saying that

he was robbed at gunpoint in London and was in desperate need of money

to get home. Bryan’s daughter who at first paid a little was the first person to notice the

change in status and brought it up to her father. It wasn’t until later did he realize the

loss which it has caused. But some of Bryan’s friends had fallen to this trap during a

short time. One of them had remitted a total of $1200 to a Western Union in London. His

friend Beny send $600 in the same way immediately heard it, and the next day she

received a message from the impostor begging for more money. It also occurred to other

people, according to reports, there are 257 people occurred the similar cases which

caused a loss of $1 million or more.

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WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

The simplest and most effective way to protect your information is to avoid putting so much information on your own blogs or the SNS. People may just want to show what happened to them or what they saw today, they never know how serious if the information falls into the wrong hands. Comparing showing off your colorful life and encountering cybercrime through SNS, we all know our life and property safety is more important.

Thinking before posting something, choosing SNS carefully, and being selective when accepting friend requirements, etc.

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PROTECT YOURSELF!

Social Network sites should be a platform to communicate with others. It shouldn’t have been like this. The government should lay down some effective laws to protect privacy information. Other than that, the best way to protect ourselves is not putting too much private information on SNS.

To cybercrime, let us say:

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References

"Criminal Use of Social Media." NW3C.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.

<http://www.nw3c.org/news/news-press>.

Hong, Pangchun, ChowShing Yu, Liubo Ping, Wanhok Man, and Yuenka Wa. "Computer Crime on Social

Network Service." Google.com. N.p., Apr. 2012. Web.15.Nov.2012. <http://www.google.com/url?

sa=t&rct=j&q=Computer+crime+on+social+network+service&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CD0QFjAD&ur

l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.se.cuhk.edu.hk%2F~chpang

%2FCMSC5723(2012)report05.pdf&ei=Au6qUPSMK-SqyAGOsYGQBg&usg=AFQjCNEQx9xPo-

fnMK-Q58CStX-JGOWFIw>.

Murphy, Samanth. "Facebook Crimes on the Rise, Experts Warn." Fox News. FOX News Network,

11Aug.2011.Web.11.Nov.2012. <http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2011/08/11/facebook-crimes-on-

rise-experts-warn/>.