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Social networking worms include Koobface, which has become, according to researchers, “the largest Web 2.0 botnet.” While a multi-faceted threat like Koobface challenges the definition of “worm,” it is specifically designed to propagate across social networks (e.g., Facebook, mySpace, Twitter, hi5, Friendster and Bebo), enlist more machines into its botnet, and hijack more accounts to send more spam to enlist more machines. All the while making money with the usual botnet business, including scareware and Russian dating services.Social network worms, such as email worms and facebook worms, pose a critical security threat to the Internet. Modeling their propagation dynamics is essential to predict their potential damages and develop countermeasures.

Take this Lollipop

Do you remember this Facebook application, which inserted your photos and posts from Facebook into an incredibly creepy movie scenario, in which you are being stalked online? ( In case you don't, here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4obWARnZeAs)

There are a myriad of privacy issues, which can arise from online activity- discrimination, profiling and data mining without your explicit consent, as well as stalking, cyber bullying... the list continues. Is there one that is worse than the other? Yes, anything that constitutes immediate (physical or psychological) threat to users is the worst, so in this context stalking and cyber bullying "win."

The problem is that the recent universality of the online space, as well as its global scope and presumed anonymity, have delayed the extension of our legal system online. We still ask ourselves if there is a boundary between what is online and what is "real-life." I think the answer lies in the implications: if an online activity has a negative implication off-line, then it should be taken as seriously as "real-life" occurrences.

I actually did my Bachelor's dissertation on the concept of "cyber terrorism," arguing that the fact that terrorism is online does not render it any less harmful. I think we suffer from a fundamental problem with language here, just inserting "digital" or "e-" before any concept makes the public regard it as less real/

Social Networks & Privacy: Many Threats!

Today, social networking users are very threatened and the safety of data shared on social networks is at risk.

First of all, the access to basic information constituting the identity of the user (for example, name, date of birth, place of birth, photo) opens the way to the risk of identity usurpation.

Besides, teenagers, more and more active on social networks, are exposed to sexual predators. Indeed, These take pleasure to contact their victims, mostly under a fake identity, and locate them geographically. This risk is greater because teenagers are less likely than adults to be careful on these networks.

Furthermore, some social networks like LinkedIn allow users to post their curriculum vitae (CV) and possibly find career opportunities. On the other side, publications of a person on a social network like Twitter or Facebook can be harmful to his professional ambitions. Indeed, an employer can quite believe that obscene photos or injurious language can deteriorate the image of the company and fire the employee.

Facebook: a place of meetings for cyber-pedophiles.

Pedophilia is far from being a new phenomenon on this Earth, but the appearance of new technological tools such as the Internet worsens this case by giving predators a great sense of anonymity. They do not hesitate to come together now on social networks like Facebook to plan their appointments and flirt with their next victim.

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According to Business Insider (May 13, 2010) founder of currently larges SNS, Mark Zuckerberg, sent these Instant messages to his friend:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard Zuck: Just ask Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one? Zuck: People just submitted it. Zuck: I don't know why. Zuck: They "trust me" Zuck: Dumb fucks

It worrying how much information are people sharing without even reading terms and condition of a site nor realizing who can become their audience. People should think twice about their behavior. It's not so long, when hackers stole photos from iCloud and published incriminated photos of celebrities who probably before that were thinking that taking a selfie in bathroom just for themselves is safe - as long as it is digitalized and saved somewhere else in the cloud it is not.

Is it wrong to use SNS or have data in the cloud? I don't think so. What is wrong is that people tend to forget that those data are stored in servers of a company who can use it for other purposes or even worse, they can be stolen by hackers. Users should understand that sharing on SNS isn't always caring and it can backfire on them if the content is too personal or violates society restrictions.

Zuck: Just ask Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one? Zuck: People just submitted it. Zuck: I don't know why. Zuck: They "trust me" Zuck: Dumb fucks

Created for BPA by Tyler Cawyer, Emily Matthews, Jared Abbott and Caitlyn Thompson Several years ago most people didn’ t have a computer in their own homes. I am not even mentioning cell phones or tablets. Today, computers are in just about every home and people use them daily.Also most schools provide kids with access to technology they’ ve never had before. On the one hand, this is a useful tool to help children grow and learn, but on the other hand, it is also a dangerous element that can lead to bullying and other issues that can have a negative impact on life. For this reason, it is essential for parents to understand what they’re children are doing online to protect them and help them handle any issues that come their way. Nowadays social media is one of the most used types of websites by teenagers. This means it is commonly used for both good and bad purposes. It is important to understand, which types of behavior constitute social media bullying can help parents or teachers identify the kid has become a victim so they behavior can be handled appropriately. The consequences of bullying are varied. In my opinion, it is essential for parents, teachers and other adults to find ways to help children learn how to interact in a friendly manner and what they can do to fight against bullies.

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Authority of your boss...

Facebook encourages people to be more public about their personal lives. If you find something really private about your colleague in a Facebook it might change your attitude towards him or her in a bad way.

At one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer or potential employer doing a background check.

Sometimes the information provided by people in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram seems little bit inappropriate...However, it can be worse if you find the picture like that on the the Facebook page of your boss. It can really change your attitude in the workplace and influence on his authority in a bad way =)

After ISIS threats, some military moms rethink social media life

The article itself is very informative and brings together some current world problems like the ISIS and security. In particular I liked this part of the article:

“Stephanie Himel-Nelson, a Virginia-based digital media strategist and the wife of a Navy veteran, offered several pieces of advice. For one, skip using a fake name as it creates a false sense of security. Instead, lock down accounts that contain personal information or family photos and don't accept friend requests from people you don't know. If you aren't sure what you've made public over the years on Facebook, hide all past posts on Facebook via the security settings via Facebook's Privacy Basics link.”

If anyone is still not persuaded by the examples provided within the article, here is a quote which sums up the attitude towards social media we all should have:

“It's like locking the doors to your home or car," said Diviney. "I still travel and enjoy my life but I am just protecting myself and my family."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102596498

The greatest risk to our internet privacy are the social platforms themselves who behind the scenes are working very hard engaging in less than honest data mining practices.

From the article:

The lawsuit targets the following “unlawful acts” on the part of Facebook, as the group sees it:

Data use policy which is invalid under EU law

The absence of effective consent to many types of data use

Support of the NSA’s ‘PRISM’ surveillance programme

Tracking of Internet users on external websites (e.g. through ‘Like buttons’)

Monitoring and analysis of users through ‘big data’ systems

Unlawful introduction of ‘Graph Search’

Unauthorised passing on of user data to external applications

It is a good idea to review your privacy settings and the information you share because it isn't only in the hands of Facebook and its partners but possibly nefarious organizations that may use your information to hurt you.

Threat of loosing a job!

While using social media platforms for private reasons, one can create a reason for firing himself !

Most of us, use social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter for personal reasons. We see them as a source and channel for expressing ourselves in an atmosphere, that we have already created from our friends or followers. Thus, we want to share our feelings, emotions and thoughts with people and hope they will get an idea of what we want them to know about us and feel about our actions. But have you ever thought that posting photo where you are holding a glass of wine and mug of beer can “help” you to loose a job?

Teacher from Georgia (USA), Ashley Payne has not thought about it definitely while posting the picture from her vacation in Europe!

Returned from vacation, she discovered that she had problems with parents who discovered the photo and complained about it at high school she was working. Unfortunately, photo from vacation worth losing a job for her!

So, before posting anything to your personal pages, think for a minute, what will your boss think about it? Will she/he “like” it?

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Social Media as the most influential aspect for our society

In an incredibly short time, all of us got used to using various channels of social media, and frankly became to see them as part of our everyday lives. We use them in school, at work, to keep up with our friends, families and idols. We are forced to use them. Would you risk getting a bad mark in school (or maybe failing totally because many schools have now courses directly focused on social media - naturally), loosing your job, or more, loosing track with the whole society?

Everything, is being advertised, discussed and posted on social media. Because of the “freedom of speech” institute, there are no filters or barriers within the participating parties would operate. That is why in many cases, we learn many things that are actually not true. But of course honestly, this is the problem of the whole Internet in general. Social networks represent all the Internet offers on the most personal level we can imagine.

Often, under the guise of our own concern or security, they are collecting data we would not be very happy about being monitored. The truth is, that every single step we take /literally/, is being monitored, every country or place we visit, the company we are working for, our financial status, our age, sex, marital status or our sexual orientation or interests. Our shopping habits, our favourite celebrities, everything we might be willing to share or - everything we would never want our closest friends or parents to know about us.

The fact that the participation takes place safe at home or on our way to somewhere via our portable devices, it gives us a false feeling of security, and more absurdly, anonymity. The opposite is true. The social media know your family /and know how often you communicate with them/, the school you graduated from and they know what destinations you are considering to visit during your next vacation. They know your medical problems and they know your biggest fears.

I don’t mean to exaggerate or to scary anyone. I just feel sad the society came to the point where the communication has changed irrecoverably. The social media change the way we feel, our daily habits, the quality of our relationships, they changes us. And I am just being a part of it right now.

https://youtu.be/W31Xy2wp7wc

Data Mining

Another dangerous aspect that I have already mentioned in the previous discussion part is Data Mining. In other words, using our personal data for the marketing, sales or advertising purposes. Facebook and other social media plattforms has used this method to make fortune. We never know and never be sure where does the data flow end. We voluntarily show and expose everything about ourselves.

Data mining should be regulated by governments. I would come up with the idea that Facebook should a paid service, which means that we would pay like 10 dollars a month, but we would read and agree to the new terms and regulations between us and the Facebook Inc, where our data would not be sold to the third parties. I think that Facebook would probably never accept this, but I wish that there would be a change in the future. The small children are becoming innocent victims of cyber criminality.

Badoo Identity Theft

I would repeat Rahuls post, but I have already mentioned that someone stole my identity on Badoo. That person stole my pictures, private information, such as the place where I live and also the age. When I found it out, I wrote to this person and asked him why is he doing that. He replied that he is ugly and he wants girls to reply to them. It is such an idiotic reason for doing this.

Government should come up with some serious punishments for such behavior, but it would be too hard, because the internet has a difficulty to be regulated. But all of us, lets be careful.

The Greatest Threat

The greatest threat or privacy issue associated to social media is "Theft of Identity". The identity thieves gather information from various social media platforms and create a fake identity. They impersonate the original profile and become the shadow.

It is very easy for people to do this and therefore one needs to be careful with the level of information that should be shared on the social media. For example, status updates about the whereabouts of a person can attract a lot of attention and hamper privacy.

Identity Theft can often be used to cause serious damage to one's social image, thus we should be careful with our virtual identity!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK3P8cx5hGg

Call to action for educational institutions

All educational institutions should very soon respond to all changes in cyber world and social media. The unawarness and vulnerability of children on social media represent a serious problem.

A tragic story of little Ryan who decided to end his young life because he was bullied and humilated several times online and at school.

http://www.puresight.com/Real-Life-Stories/ryan-halligan-1989-2003.html

We should remember tragic stories like this and focus on social media education.

Why are you letting everyone on social media know that no one is home?

One of the security threats that did not come up in our class is the fact that we post so much personal information on social media sites that we are basically asking someone to come into our home and rob us while we are enjoying ourselves somewhere in the Mediterranean, soaking up the sun.

It is actually almost like going to the Old Town square in Prague and announce to everyone standing there, that you are going to spend the next seven days on the coast of Italy. I do not know anyone who would want to do that!

My recommendation would be to at least wait with posting all of your holiday pictures on Instagram and Facebook for when you get back from the trip. Why not just go offline for a few days and enjoy the beach, read a book? The same goes for status updates and adding location to these post. You might as well write in your FB status: “Please rob me.”

#PleaseRobMe SecurityThreats SocialMedia COM641

This is fake story, parody on real events. The website Clickhole contains parodies, criticism and satire about various issues and here we can see the example of reversed cyber bullying and opportunities to harmfull informaton, lies and misinterpretations to spread. Imagine that the identity of a bully was published somewhere and internet users cooperated to make her life hell. Possible similar issues might be when somebody is hacked and the private content is uploaded on internet as in cases of celebrities.

In this example, because of social media, internet users would be able to obtain her photo and information or some of her schoolmates might just provide that information to internet. Then you can see how social media and its content might be used in order to harm a person. What is more troubling is that you can get very large number of people following something they do not know in details. Moreover, the whole campaign might be done with false information just to destroy your life. The fake example shows the possibilities of how the current privacy issue and spreadility can also influence you.

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