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There are numerous social networking sites available on the internet. They are places where everyone has the freedom to express themselves, make friends from other countries and advertise businesses. Whatever your purpose is you have to ensure that you are not wasting your time building relationships from these sites. Learning some helpful tips on how to build a good networks or relationships through these websites will make your time, sitting in front of your computer, worth it.
Lots of social networking sites are accessed online where you can gain followers and friends. It's everybody's goal to generate hundreds and thousands of followers on his profile. In that case, you need to make your profile interesting, attention-grabbing and informative. Customizing your personal or business profile through the different social networking sites can provide you an increase of followers.
Privacy and security are the concerns in every social networking site. Therefore, you avoid posting too much personal information about you. Instead, display educational details and encouraging posts. Keeping your profile informative and enlightening is a representation that you are real, sincere and honest of who you are.
Social network sites are created for everyone to engage in active interaction, share common interests and communicate with other people from other parts of the world. This is your best chance actually to meet people from different backgrounds, cultures and traditions. For business, you can expand the way you market products not just locally but globally. Participating in various ways to make interaction with others is a good way to build network relationships.
Understanding all these things can help you build relationships through different social networking sites. It is fun and exciting to join in this kind of places where you have the privilege to meet other people. Keeping all these things in mind is surely a great way to socialize with thousands of people around the world.
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Social networking (SN) was a concept originally founded for the masses to use on a very overlapping basis, but alongside the acceleration of Enterprise 2.0, things have begun to pick up, and fast. After social networks surpassed the sustainable monetization stage the first Web 1.0 companies couldn't, and evolved to an adequate scale and spectrum, the next, less generic step formed: professional use.
Once enterprise discovered the potential for a means of fast, accessible and affordable communications between remote workers, professional networking began to grow out of the single all-inclusive concept which generically encompasses SN. There are, or at least were, some obvious benefits of using Facebook and Twitter to share data and information, notably the fact no training was required for employees already accustomed to the simplified user interfaces via their own personal experience.
However significant, this use by the enterprise was only one aspect to professional networking, which branched out to encompass other fields as well. These include individual employment of LinkedIn and similar services. And, as SN geared more and more user interest, enterprise focus began to fall on two very specific elements.
Social Media Monetization
The major social networks alone, namely Facebook, Twitter and the ever-fading MySpace, have over a billion users combined, and they're not the only ones to monetize these demographics. Enterprises utilize various SN resources, including advertising, dedicated channels, metrics and Big Data to boost marketing and consumer perception. There are many examples of enterprises utilizing social media for outbound purposes, but internal use represents the second, equally significant element of the two noted above.
Internal community platforms
In addition to marketing, enterprises also adopted social networking for internal communications between remote workers. However, employee communications and collaboration requirements drastically increased, and general public-optimized social networks were abandoned in favor of specifically targeted enterprise-centric offerings.
Demands which were not answered by Facebook and Twitter were addressed and compensated for in these new offerings, which multiplied in number. Security, transparency, integration and functionally were all drastically enhanced and optimized for the enterprise, resulting many, relatively still fresh products.
Cisco, IBM, Jive, Hearsay and dozens of others are all now competing for market share in what was once only an almost makeshift market. Increased competition means enhanced offerings. In terms of internal social networking platforms, this translated into blogs, document repositories, calendar integration, project planning, instant messaging, video conferencing and VoIP options on a massive scale.
What goes around comes around, and after insufficient features were replaced by complex functions and capabilities, the need for simplicity and clarity soon realized itself.
Internal enterprise social networking offerings are often fairly complex, sometimes one or two steps exceeding efficiency. A large bulk of only partially necessary functions has some very obvious downsides to it, most notably when it comes to organization and time consumption on the user. Research firm Gartner predicts that social networking will replace e-mail as the main communications channel for 20% of business users by 2014. Nevertheless, growing demand doesn't mean the necessity will be properly answered. Enterprise social platforms are not designed for socializing, and highly popular social network add-ons are simply not designed for large-scale business users. Another factor is training, and a complex internal community platform probably is not worth the training time it would require.
Simplicity is a requirement for internal networking, and it's this factor which can turn a piece of enterprise software into an advantageous operational asset for a given company and workforce. Legacy software integration, large-scale real-time collaboration and communication channels cut down to the simplest and most scalable form derived from actual user experience form a more realistic structure, and are already utilized by existing offerings.
Overall, enterprise social network offerings still need some time to mature. On the bottom line it's all about boosting workforce efficiency and answering corporate needs, and social networking may not be the answer. Gartner predicts that while 50% of enterprises will use social networking activity streams next year, they will have less than 5 percent penetration. Moreover, 2012 will be the year "over 70 percent of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail", and only 25 percent of enterprises will routinely utilize Big Data from social networks by 2015. All and all, it's all about necessity and practicality. The answers to these will probably be shaped around mobile and cloud computing, as these continue to integrate directly into business operations at an ever-accelerating pace and maximize corporate assets.
Read more articles about online strategy and technology by visiting Steven Henty's blog.
Social networking is certainly one of the buzzwords of the year. MySpace, Facebook, and a plethora of blog networks and discussion forums all fall under the umbrella of social networking. Although it is typically described as interacting with virtual community members, social marketing takes on new meaning when it becomes an offline approach.
The convenience and comfort of the online world has added much to business networking. However, is it possible that this virtual connection has also taken away from the benefits real-life face to face interaction offers? Perhaps a healthy balance of online and offline networking is what it needed to take a business-even an online business-to the next level.
An Internet Marketer can find numerous effective and interesting ways to connect with people offline. Keeping a stash of business cards to hand out to people you meet while out and about is one simple way to create interest and discussion about your business.
Every Internet marketer knows to always include signatures and links in e-mails, forum and blog postings in order to bring in business. The same techniques can be applied in the outside world by utilizing business cards or just your voice to bring your business and interests into conversation.
Getting involved in local business networking events is another effective way to enter offline social marketing. Attend chamber of commerce events, lunch and learns, or happy hours for professionals to get plugged into circles of people with whom you can swap business advice and learn more about what is going on in your area.
Nervous about leaving the security of your office chair and computer screen? If you have been able to be successful at online social marketing, you can succeed offline as well. Simply use the same social skills that have worked for you on forums and blogs: show a genuine interest in people, be friendly and thoughtful, and use honesty and integrity as you meet with people.
Internet marketing seminars are a great way to connect with people who have similar interests and goals. By using your people-skills, you can develop rewarding professional relationships that will benefit your business and perhaps even your social calendar. Furthermore, such seminars will provide you with information to build your business. You are basically doubling your money with this offline social networking option.
It's all about avoiding the "stuck in a box" scenario. A true Internet marketer is always seeking out opportunities to connect with others, and the offline world provides many avenues for connection.
True, it may not be as easy or comfortable as an online forum. After all, in the real world we don't walk around with our profiles, including hobbies, goals, and favorite movies, listed on our shirts, nor do we have our favorite song playing in the background. But by being honest and real and displaying genuine interest in others, you will find yourself succeeding in the offline world of social networking -no screen name required.
Matthew is the developer of TheWebReviewer: Legitimate Home Based Business Reviews, and NetWebVideo: Mastering SEO, Adwords, and Affiliate Marketing. Matt currently lives in San Diego, CA and is married with two children and has been an online marketer since 2006.
Social networking sites can be accessed by anyone because they basically offer memberships for free. Hence, they may try to engage in social sites not fit for their age or acquaint themselves with people that will not be healthy for them. It is therefore a parents responsibility to make sure his/her son/daughter's social networking experience is a healthy one.
Introduction
"Do you know where your children are?" is a common things asked from parents concerning children. In the social networking sense it equates to "Do you know what social networks your kids are actively involved in - and who they're chatting with online?"
Social networking sites have evolved into a mainstream for kids, teens and adults alike. These sites encourage and facilitate information exchanges about people, picture and video sharing, and communication through blog and other instant messaging media with other like minded people or the whole community in general. Though the potential benefits of actively participating in social sites are very huge, we should all be aware of the risks and possible pitfalls the come with online social networking.
There are some social networking sites whose main target audience are pre-teens - kids ages 5-11 years old. These kid-focused sites implement rules and policies better fit for youngster and members usually go through a longer membership process than the regular teen and adult sites. There are still however, a number of things a parent can do to better make sure of your kid's online socializing safety. The law is well aware of this dilemma and has provided parents control over the type of information a kid can post or publish online.
The federal constitution has devised the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to govern sites directed to an audience of ages under 13. The COPPA also applies to sites who do not specifically target pre-teens but are aware that they are dealing with kids younger than 13. the COPPA requires such sites to get parental permission before they can start to collect, maintain, or use a kids' information. It also gives the parents the power to review their kid's online profile and blog pages and make necessary changes. The main problem lies in the fact that most parents fell outpaced by their technologically savvy kids and feel reluctance in approaching them about techie matters. Parents should know that there are still stuff they can teach their kid's to help them stay safe while socializing in the realm of cyberspace.
Help Kids Socialize Safely Online
1. Aid your kids distinguish what information should be kept confidential
Explain to them the reasons why some information about themselves, family members and friends are to be kept from the knowledge of other people. Tell them the possible harm divulging information like full name, Social Security number, street address, phone number, and family financial information - like bank or credit card account numbers - can cause. Advice them to choose a screen name or user name that does not give out way to much information.
2. Use privacy settings to restrict who can access and post on your child's website
Good social networking sites have strong privacy settings. Demonstrate to your kid how to utilize these settings to limit who can view their online profile, and explain to them its importance.
3.Explain that kids should post only information that you and they don't mind others seeing
Even after privacy settings have been put into effect, there are still some or even all of your kid's profile that outsiders or the general public can look at. Advice your child to think at least twice about what he will be saying in his blog or what pictures or videos he will be uploading. Employers, college admissions officers, team coaches, and teachers may view your child's postings and may provide a very valuable first impression. Even screen names can have big impacts. Advise kids to think about what others may think of their screen names.
4. Inform your kids that once they publish information online, they can't take it back
Even if they delete the information from a site, others would have already sen it, and older versions may exist on other people's computers and be circulated online.
5. Determine how your kids access the online social networking sites
More and more, kids are accessing the Internet through their cellular phones. Find out about the limitations you can place on your child's cell phone. Some cellular companies offer plans that limit downloads, Internet access, and texting; other plans permit kids to use those features only at particular times of day.
6. Tell your kids about online bullying
Online bullying can be executed in numerous forms, from circulating rumors online and posting or forwarding private messages without the sender's permission, to sending threatening messages. Let your kids know that the words they type and the images they post can have real-world consequences. They can make the target of the bullying feel bad, make the sender look bad - and, sometimes, can bring on punishment from the authorities. Encourage your kids to talk to you if they feel targeted by a bully.
7. Tell your kids to refrain from sex talk online
Recent research shows that teens who don't talk about sex with strangers online are less likely to come in contact with a predator. If you're concerned that your child is engaging in risky online behavior, you can search the blog sites they visit to see what information they're posting. Try searching by their name, nickname, school, hobbies, grade, or area where you live.
8. Advice your kids to trust their Instincts if they get suspicious
If they feel threatened by someone or uncomfortable because of something online, encourage them to tell you. You can then help them report concerns to the police and to the social networking site. Most sites have links where users can immediately report abusive, suspicious, or inappropriate online behavior.
9. Read sites' privacy policies
Spend some time with a site's privacy policy, FAQs, and parent sections to understand its features and privacy controls. The site should spell out your rights as a parent to review and delete your child's profile if your child is younger than 13.
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How can social networking sites improve the communication in an organization? Just as these sites help friends and family members connect and reconnect, they can also make sharing information among members of an organization much easier.
What kind of information can be exchanged through social networking sites? Businesses will find that they can improve communication between employees by allowing data to be posted where everyone can access it. The types of things that can be shared include photos, videos, spreadsheets, charts and other documents.
How can this type of information be shared on social networking sites without compromising sensitive information? The best way to improve communication with a social networking site is to have a custom site designed especially for use by your company's employees. As with other data exchanged between company computers, security measures will need to be put in place to ensure that only employees will have access to the data.
How do internal social networking sites improve communication if the company already has an intranet? Most companies do not have features built into their intranets that allow employees to communicate with one another easily. By setting up a social networking site for employees, you encourage employees to share information and ideas. In addition to making it easier to share data that is essential for performing their jobs, employees will find it easier to build friendships with one another, which will lead to a more pleasant and productive workplace. By allowing your employees to interact with each other easily, you can improve their level of job satisfaction and reduce turnover rates in the company.
James Dempsey is a top internet marketer who works with industry leaders from around the world. He has a passion for helping others achieve their goals, dreams and aspirations. To learn more about James Dempsey and his team of Marketing Mentors meet him at: [http://www.work-from-homebusiness.biz/]
Social networking disadvantages are mostly related to safety issues. Online social interaction has become a very popular activity online. Like most popular activities there is always a certain amount of danger involved. Social networking disadvantages will be minimized if you are cautious when you use it. Internet networking is the act of interacting and sharing information with others online. If you share the wrong information to the wrong person it can end in some dangerous results. If you are careful when giving out information and networking on social sites than you will most likely be safe and have a great time connecting with others.
Many social sites have upgraded their security to make it much safer for users. When social interaction sites first appeared on the market they were completely untested. Because of this there were many ways for predators and criminals to do harm to users. Hackers are always a concern with the majority of online sites. This is especially true for certain networking sites which promote tons of personal information about individuals. The social meeting sites have taken a lot of hits in the lack of security they provide. Young teens have been killed, forced to commit suicide, and abducted by child predators while using their social networking site. Although these incidents are horrible acts, they do not happen on a regular basis. Many such sites have raised their age limits and security to ensure better safety for networking users. Social networking disadvantages can be safely dodged if the sites are used properly.
Social networking disadvantages are lessened if you follow some common networking safety tips. The first tip to underrate social networking disadvantages is to utilize the privacy settings on your profile. One of the biggest dangers during socializing is having too much personal information available. You can use the privacy settings to screen incoming individuals and what they see of your profile. The second tip to reduce social networking disadvantages is to maintain your computer defenses. Always have virus protection and anti-virus on your computer. Networking sites can have a host of ads that contain virus code which can infect your computer.
The third tip to decrease social networking disadvantages is to review the network website's safety notifications, standards, policies, and learn how to report violating content. It can usually be found during the registration process. Make a copy so you have it handy if there is ever a security problem that you need to deal with. Another tip for curtailing social networking disadvantages is to remember to be cautious. Don't post it on your profile unless you want everyone in the world to see it.
Bad people are always lurking online waiting for someone innocent to prey on. People are not who they claim to be the majority of the time. Do not meet anyone from a social site unless you are sure that you know them or who they are. Even if you are comfortable with meeting that person still bring a friend and tell people about the meeting in case anything goes wrong. It is always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to social networking disadvantages.
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When you log on any social media website there are potential threats that can damage your system and steal important data. You need to be vigilant against these threats and be aware of the ways by which you can prevent these malicious actions. Let us learn about the top 5 security threats that active online social networking users face.
Virus and malware threats -Viruses that enter your system can wreak havoc. Often the most vicious attack that a user encounters is while surfing social websites. This is where they run the risk of malware entering their system. Once this enters the PC, the user faces a lot of issues ranging from slow PC performance to software issues and error messages. If these go unattended then it can even lead to a system crash.
Phishing attacks - It has always been the trend that the most popular websites are prone to become the target of hackers. The reason is simple. People often divulge their personal information even to strangers who they meet via the web without knowing their real identity. This becomes a threat to their own security when the information shared is misused for the purpose of committing crimes or tampering with financial information. A simple way to avoid this mess is by not answering e-mails or chat messages that come from unknown or suspicious sources. Even if these are coming from a known source you still need to be careful.
Scam emails - Often it happens that a user may get an email that claims to have come from the administrator of a website. This kind of emails, trick the user into believing that the password has been automatically reset due to some technical difficulties. Now you are asked to open the attachment to get the new password. This is a potential threat to your system as this attachment is designed to steal your password. The hacker will get to know the details of your account and tamper with the information. The easiest way to recognize these are the numerous sentence constructions, grammatical errors that are there in the content. In order to prevent your computer from getting infected, avoid responding to these scam emails. One more thing to remember is that a social networking website may send you an email for resetting the password but will never do so without prior intimation.
Selective Sharing of information - While chatting with a friend or a random acquaintance you often share personal information. This information can be misused by anyone. Divulging information to a random stranger is a potential threat to your own security. You should avoid sharing information to people randomly as this is the only way by which you can be secure. What kind of information you are sharing and with whom is extremely important and you need to be very specific about choosing people when it comes to information sharing.
Privacy settings - You need to be aware of security and privacy settings once you access a social network website. Websites like Facebook, Orkut comes powered with various security measures. If you are not aware of them, you need to read their online manual for the required security settings and opt for ways by which you can protect your online privacy. You will find an entire step by step tutorial for setting up these privacy related filters.
Security should have multi-levels and multi-layers so that it provides complete protection. After realizing the potential threats prevailing on social networking website the next step is to secure you data and PC from hackers. To know more about securing your PC and protecting your privacy online you need to get in touch with a premium computer support provider that offers online tech support.
She is a Technology writer who is keen on any new emerging technology updates. She is working with Qresolve as a Technical Support Engineer. Semeli Karen McPherson has been offering online tech support to global customers for issues related to laptops, desktops, Mac and devices including iPods, tablets, iPhones computer support and more.She caters to the segment of core technology and provides viable solutions to any issues related to technology and software. Her expertise and skills in handling key technology issues is immaculate and quick result bearing. Through her articles and postings she aims to provide knowledge and solutions to common technology issues that a user faces.
Everyone has at least one. A Facebook account. A Twitter feed. Maybe a lingering MySpace page. Probably in conjunction with these you are running a LinkedIn page for connecting to work contacts; posting location information through 4Square; or have a personalized iGoogle homepage. Let's face it social networking has become the hottest way to keep in contact with your friends, co-workers, lost acquaintances, even family. Social networking has allowed individuals to maintain vast social networks that span across the globe. Individuals, groups, and organizations are utilizing social network sites to reach out to their communities. They have become the preferred means to spread interest in specific topics and advertise upcoming local events. Staying connected with the people that influence our lives has never been easier. But with all the advantages these sites offer, it comes with a profound price: our privacy.
We hand over most of our personal information to these sites: where we work, our telephone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, personal history, and much more. All of this information is accessible by not only the system administrators for these companies but also the people we accept as our friends; not to mention whatever information left unprotected that can be accessed by individuals or law enforcement surfing social network sites. Through our posts we provide information on our spending habits, where we are, our personal thoughts on popular culture, where we shop most, even the events of our mundane lives. We upload photos, create blogs, post comments, and comment on other people posts. Through all of this, we are creating mass information databases that can teach enterprising parties a lot about the kind of people we are. As we increasingly put more of our private lives into these vast social information databases growing concern is mounting about the amount of privacy a person has online and the possible profits that can be generated from data collected about you and your friends through social media posts.
Revenue is being invested and generated from information gleaned on social network sites. Companies like Gnip are making money as social media aggregators by designing tools that search user posts for information on specific products and events. This information they collect is then being sold to other organizations to use however they wish. Information can be collected on our political views, our distaste for one store over another, what products we bought, what products we are using, how we are using products, our taste in food, the music we like, the places where we live, etc. Companies can learn a lot about the people who are making posts about them (i.e. who that person is, where they live, where they work, who their friends are, a person's age, even what that person looks like). Imagine if a government like China wanted to start aggregating some of this information.
The point is that the information people are posting in private to be shared with friends and acquaintances they have made on the internet is not in fact private. Even though the average Facebook surfer cannot access a private account without friending that person does not mean a company cannot obtain information about what you are posting when doing a mass search of "News Feed" comments. Now not all information a company collects from an individual's posts seems malicious. So what if an internet service provider (ISP) does a search on twitter to see when people are doing most of their online gaming? When coupled with the rising issue of net neutrality ( http://lifehacker.com/5720407/an-introduction-to-net-neutrality-what-it-is-what-it-means-for-you-and-what-you-can-do-about-it ) said ISP could be doing this so they can charge more for internet use at these peak gaming times or determine which areas of the world are doing the most online gaming and then raise internet service rates in these areas. This does not include all of the other information companies can gather to use in expanding their profit margins.
Bug companies aggregating comments for personal gain is not the only issue to be concerned with when posting personal information on the internet. Hackers have always been an issue on the internet. Social networks are huge information databases that can provide a hacker with a vast volume of content to use. Hackers break into these websites with ease and STEAL data on millions of people. They can use information taken from your account to learn where you shop online, stalk you, access your email, or obtain specifics about your friends. Each year dozens of Fortune 500 companies get hacked. Everything from account login information to personal data is stolen in these security breaches. Hackers have been know to use hacked social network accounts to steal personal data for setting up fake shopping accounts, spam user contacts, impersonate users, discover information about online shopping habits of users, and more. Hackers can use information stolen from your account to change login information to sites like Amazon or PayPal by studying your posts and reviewing your user comments.
These websites offer users a false sense of security promising that storing your personal private information is safe from malicious use. The problem is that hackers target these sites for the information they contain. But once your information has been leaked onto the internet, there is no telling where it ends up. Most hacker breaches, as with the recently exposed online payment services and the Gawker media hacks, show private secured networks are breached quite often and sometimes these breaches last for months as the hackers syphon off huge amounts of data about users. Even worse the long term affects of such hacks are hard to quantify and discover. But once the data is exposed on the internet there is no way of securing that information again.
Social media sites provide many beneficial conveniences to interact with the world and friends. But those benefits come with a cost. We expose ourselves and contacts to the chance of having personal information stolen. It can take years, even a lifetime, to counter the ill affects of a possible identity theft caused by a social network hack. The ONLY way to keep your information safe is to stop using these sites. To protect your identity and personal information delete all of your social network accounts and do not sign up for any new social network services. Not providing social networks your personal information is the only 100% safe means from having your personal information stolen.
Your computer's security is always at risk of external invasion. If any of your social network passwords are stored on your computer, it is only a matter of time before they are stolen through an invasion of your personal computer. From there it is only a matter of time before this information is used to obtain your personal information stored in your social network accounts. From there it is only a matter of time before hackers are stealing the information from your social network contacts. Learn how to protect yourself from the invasion of your personal information and how to delete your social network accounts at http://HowToDeleteYourAccount.com/.
Act now before you become the next victim of identity theft.
Social Engineering in its basic form is hacker talk for manipulating computer users out of their username and password. Social engineering really goes beyond just usernames and passwords. A well planned social engineering attack can destroy companies. All of the most devastating information thefts have used some sort of social engineering attack. Social engineering is so effective because computer admins and security experts spend all their time patching systems and not training employees about information security. Information security goes beyond patching computers, it is a combination of physical security, computer/network policy and employee training.
This article will describe many of the common security flaws that information thieves take advantage off and how you can prevent them.
1. Web sites Information - Company web sites are the best place to start when gathering information. Often a company will post all their employees names, email addresses, positions and phone numbers for everyone to see. You want to limit the number of employees and phone numbers listed on a web site. Also, live active links to employee email addresses should be avoided. A common mistake is a company's email user name will be the same as their network logon, example: email address of jsmith@nocompany.com has a user name of jsmith for the network with the same password for email and the network.
2. Phone Scams - Scamming someone on a phone is very simple. Company employees need to be trained to be courteous but cautious when giving callers information over the phone. One hacking scam is a hacker will call a company posing as computer salesmen. The salesmen will ask the secretary what type of computers they have, do they have a wireless network and what type of operating systems they run. Hackers can use this information to plan their attack on the network. Train your employees to refer any IT related questions to Tech Support.
3. Outside Contractors - Outside contractors should have a security liaison to monitor their activities. Security liaisons should be briefed on what work the contractor is hired to perform, area of operation, identity of contractor and if the contractor will be removing items from the work site.
4. Dumpster Diving - The easiest way to get information about anyone is to go through their trash. Shredders should be used in all cases or shredding services should be hired. Also, the Dumpster should be in a secure location and under surveillance.
5. Secretaries - They are your first line of defense, train them to not let anyone into your building unless they are for certain whom they are. Security cameras should be place in the main entrance way and also on the outside of the building. A thief who is probing your network will test to see if he is challenged upon entering the building, cameras can help identify patterns and suspicious people.
6. NO PASSWORDS - Make it company policy that the tech department will never call you or email you asking for your username or password. If somebody does call and ask for a password or username red flags will go up every where.
7. LOG OFF - Social Engineering attacks get the hacker into the building and they will usually find many workstations where the user hasn't logged off. Make it company policy that all users must log off their workstations every time they leave it. If the policy is not followed then the employee should be written up or docked pay. Don't make a hacker's job any easier than it already is.
8. Training - Information security training is a must for any size company. Information security is a layered approach that starts with the physical structure of the building down to how each work station is configured. The more layers your security plan has the harder it is for an information thief to accomplish his mission.
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Social media, First Amendment and data security issues are interwoven in recent accounts of current events that raise fascinating concerns and questions.
In San Francisco, attempts were made to foil protesters planning to disrupt public transportation services when the Bay Area Rapid Transit authority temporarily interrupted cell service at several subway platforms. This unleashed a barrage of reaction and debate on both sides of the issue. Perhaps the most notable and certainly the most vicious group to take exception to BART's action was the hacker group Anonymous, which attacked myBart.org, defacing the site and releasing personal information for 2,400 BART riders, and even organizing a subsequent demonstration.
It's not only the vigilante group that is acting in the wake of BART's decision to thwart protesters by disrupting cell service, however; the Federal Communications Council has also launched an investigation into the matter.
Was BART's temporary shutdown reasonable given the public safety concerns of the transit authority, which designates free speech areas for public protests safely outside of its train and subway platforms? Were the free speech rights of the protesters violated? What about other riders who may have tried to reach a child, parent or even emergency services during the period cell service was disrupted? Was it worth the cost to attempt to prevent potentially dangerous protests?
While all these issues are sorted out, BART's professional reputation has certainly been damaged. Policy-makers are questioning the organization's decision-making and lack of leadership, some even comparing BART to former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, who shut down cell service in Tahrir Square in response to peaceful protests earlier this year.
Days before the San Francisco incident, social media was cast first as the villain and then as the hero across the pond in London. First, rioters utilized BlackBerry Messenger to organize days of extremely destructive and disturbing lawless acts. In the wake of the riots, however, volunteers have been recruited and massive cleanup efforts have been mobilized via Twitter and Facebook, redeeming social media's role in this unfortunate episode in the eyes of Londoners and other observers.
Back in California, Anonymous is again making threats, this time in Fullerton where the vigilante organization seeks retaliation for the alleged beating death of a homeless schizophrenic man by Fullerton police. The Anonymous YouTube video is both fascinating and disturbing with its masked spokesperson, computer-modulated voice and demands.
So where will this tale end? Its conclusion is yet to be written. The debates surrounding the use of social media platforms to incite action, the use of cyber-attacks to exact vigilante justice and the threats to First Amendment rights and data security are too important, however, for any of us to ignore. Where do you stand on these issues? Which of these threats do you find most disturbing?
Based in Nashville, Tenn., Lovell Communications Inc. is a national marketing and public relations firm that protects brand reputations and works with companies to build and grow their businesses. We specialize in public relations, crisis communications and healthcare marketing services.
MySpace and other social networking sites offer thriving communities where young people engage in countless hours of banal chatter and photo sharing. Not coincidentally, these social networking sites also have become hangouts for child predators, child pornographers, and other cybercriminals.
To stay one step ahead of authorities, these cybercriminals use tricks to conceal their identities online. One of the most common is lying about their ages, claiming to be younger than they are. And to hide their IP addresses and locations, predators and other cybercriminals often piggyback on Wi-Fi connections or use proxy servers. They use decentralized peer-to-peer networks to prevent material from being tracked to a specific server. They also use encryption to allow them to keep online chats private from those policing the Web. When law enforcement, ISPs, and others take down the websites of these pedophiles, predators, and cybercriminals, it's not long before they're back up, hosted by a different service.
Skillful with their cell phones, instant messaging accounts, and with access to personal computers at home and school, young people are easy targets for sexual predators. Too many of them are ready and willing to share personal information online without a thought to how it might be misused by others. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that one in five kids online has been solicited or enticed. Reports of child pornography on the center's CyberTipline have increased six of the last seven years.
Business and technology professionals may think of online child safety as a family issue, but it's a workplace issue, too. Social networks aren't just a teen phenomenon. A recent survey by Web filtering company, Websense, found that 8% of respondents visit social networking sites while at work. Companies can use Web filters to limit access to the sites, though Websense says its customers don't seem overly concerned. Whiling away company time on social networks is a productivity issue; luring children for sex is a criminal one.
There's little evidence that sexual predators are trolling from workplace personal computers, but it's been known to happen. In 2003, a Cincinnati-area police chief admitted to soliciting sex from someone he thought was a 15-year-old, using his work computer. And a deputy press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, arrested in March for attempting to seduce a child, had his workplace computer seized as part of the investigation and gave the number to his government-issued cell phone to a police office posing as a 14-year-old girl.
Child porn stored on company computers and servers has been a bigger problem. Filtering and blocking can help keep the images off networks, though it's not failsafe. Keyword and URL-based filters have spotty coverage. Other software scans images for limbs and skin tones and blocks pictures it identifies as porn, but skin often takes up too little of the photographs, and innocuous material can be inadvertently blocked.
The Internet Crimes Against Children program last year investigated 2,329 cases of enticement and of predators traveling to meet minors, and 252,000 cases of child pornography. Yet those numbers provide just a glimpse of the activity, since many local police forces are too small to investigate child porn. "It's absolutely overwhelming," says Brad Russ, director of Internet Crimes Against Children's training and technical assistance program, which trains 1,000 officers each year. "The scope and the scale of the problem far exceeds our capacity." Intensifying the epidemic is that more than half the world has no laws dealing with child pornography.
Vigilante groups are fighting back. In January, NBC's Dateline featured a report about one such group, Perverted-Justice.org, which set up a sting that resulted in 51 men being busted in three nights. The group hasn't seen one acquittal from those it's helped bring to justice, and nearly all of its work is done with law enforcement. Yet some in law enforcement are wary of such efforts. "We certainly take any information that anyone has regarding an offender," says Randy Newcomb, an investigator with the New York State Police in Canandaigua, N.Y. However, vigilantes expose themselves to liability for entrapment or possession of child porn and might not properly maintain digital evidence, Newcomb says.
Putting filtering and monitoring software on kids' computers provides some protection. SearchHelp's Sentry line, for example, blocks Web sites based on keywords and creates a log of visited sites. It also lets parents and other guardians monitor a child's activity from other computers. Parents can be notified of violations via E-mail or cell phone. Sentry also monitors IM conversations, using expertise culled from law enforcement to flag phrases commonly used by predators. Any IT pro knows of the limitations of such tools. The filters don't work perfectly, and even if kids post and browse safely, social networking sites present a new set of problems. Profiles on the sites often link to other online information sources, providing the type of data a fixated predator might use to locate a child, such as a school name, says Michelle Collins, a unit director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Investigator Newcomb recently spoke to an auditorium of elementary schoolers in western New York. He asked kids in the audience how many of them had more than 200 friends on their online buddy list--a bunch of hands shot up. Out of those, he asked how many have only friends on that list they can put a face to, and half of the hands remained raised. Finally, he asked if any of the kids had ever gone and met someone they'd got to know online, and a few hands were raised. "That's just totally frightening to me," Newcomb says. "The superintendent looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head." It may take a village to raise a child, but in a world of online social networking, decentralized networks and servers, and increasingly tech-savvy child predators, it's going to take a united effort among government, industry, and families to keep them safe. To protect your child, you need an Internet security team of experts making sure that you, your family, and your business computer are always safe and secure.
The best protection you can have in today's rapidly changing world of cyber-attacks is to have expert support for all your Internet security needs that will provide technical support without any hassles and without charging you extra fees. It will become even more critical than it is today as time goes on. You need to find your own personal team of experts to rely on. If you ever have a security problem, you will want to have a trusted expert you can call for professional help, without any hassles and extra costs!
Remember: When you say "No!" to hackers and spyware, everyone wins! When you don't, we all lose.
Etienne A. Gibbs, Internet Safety Advocate, recommends to individuals and small business owners the protection (including free lifetime technical support and $25,000 identity theft insurance and recovery) package he uses. For more information, visit http://www.SayNotoHackersandSpyware.com/.
Social networking websites have become part and parcel of our daily lives. And with a multitude of different services available to us, the choice is endless.
Combined with an increase in cheap broadband packages now available to us, more of us are now using the internet to keep in keeping in contact with friends and family, finding employment and just generally sharing silly pictures.
For others it can become an obsession - with some worrying about who could possibly be leaving comments on their message boards, becoming conscious about e-mails and updating their status every five minutes or so.
And as broadband connections are becoming more widely available to us, more of us are making use of these sites. But studies have shown that, whilst our attitudes towards social networking may have changed, our awareness of the risks of putting our personal details online still remains one of the grey areas of such services.
A recent study carried out by OFCOM has helped to shed some light on the trends of social networking. The results showed that it was mostly young people who made use of the services available on social networking sites, with an estimated 49% of children aged 8-17 having a profile online.
And with broadband services becoming more widespread, there are calls for greater awareness and promotion of online safety for surfers of all ages.
Coupled with the recent Byron Report, which focused on the influence of internet content and computer games on young people, parents are now being advised to keep an eye on information their children may be posting online.
And with more of us now putting personal details on our profiles, it could be seen as an easy target for cyber criminals and marketing associations.
There is now pressure on the world of social networking to ensure that children are protected, calling for a use of age verification, better profile security for young people and access to 'panic buttons' which can be used to report suspicious activity while surfing the internet.
As levels of cyber crime and identify theft are on the increase, there is a growing call to take steps to protect our personal details online, be it through social networking or spam e-mails.
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MySpace and other social networking sites offer thriving communities where young people engage in countless hours of banal chatter and photo sharing. Not coincidentally, these social networking sites also have become hangouts for child predators, child pornographers, and other cybercriminals.
To stay one step ahead of authorities, these cybercriminals use tricks to conceal their identities online. One of the most common is lying about their ages, claiming to be younger than they are. And to hide their IP addresses and locations, predators and other cybercriminals often piggyback on Wi-Fi connections or use proxy servers. They use decentralized peer-to-peer networks to prevent material from being tracked to a specific server. They also use encryption to allow them to keep online chats private from those policing the Web. When law enforcement, ISPs, and others take down the websites of these pedophiles, predators, and cybercriminals, it's not long before they're back up, hosted by a different service.
Skillful with their cell phones, instant messaging accounts, and with access to personal computers at home and school, young people are easy targets for sexual predators. Too many of them are ready and willing to share personal information online without a thought to how it might be misused by others. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that one in five kids online has been solicited or enticed. Reports of child pornography on the center's CyberTipline have increased six of the last seven years.
Business and technology professionals may think of online child safety as a family issue, but it's a workplace issue, too. Social networks aren't just a teen phenomenon. A recent survey by Web filtering company, Websense, found that 8% of respondents visit social networking sites while at work. Companies can use Web filters to limit access to the sites, though Websense says its customers don't seem overly concerned. Whiling away company time on social networks is a productivity issue; luring children for sex is a criminal one.
There's little evidence that sexual predators are trolling from workplace personal computers, but it's been known to happen. In 2003, a Cincinnati-area police chief admitted to soliciting sex from someone he thought was a 15-year-old, using his work computer. And a deputy press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, arrested in March for attempting to seduce a child, had his workplace computer seized as part of the investigation and gave the number to his government-issued cell phone to a police office posing as a 14-year-old girl.
Child porn stored on company computers and servers has been a bigger problem. Filtering and blocking can help keep the images off networks, though it's not failsafe. Keyword and URL-based filters have spotty coverage. Other software scans images for limbs and skin tones and blocks pictures it identifies as porn, but skin often takes up too little of the photographs, and innocuous material can be inadvertently blocked.
The Internet Crimes Against Children program last year investigated 2,329 cases of enticement and of predators traveling to meet minors, and 252,000 cases of child pornography. Yet those numbers provide just a glimpse of the activity, since many local police forces are too small to investigate child porn. "It's absolutely overwhelming," says Brad Russ, director of Internet Crimes Against Children's training and technical assistance program, which trains 1,000 officers each year. "The scope and the scale of the problem far exceeds our capacity." Intensifying the epidemic is that more than half the world has no laws dealing with child pornography.
Vigilante groups are fighting back. In January, NBC's Dateline featured a report about one such group, Perverted-Justice.org, which set up a sting that resulted in 51 men being busted in three nights. The group hasn't seen one acquittal from those it's helped bring to justice, and nearly all of its work is done with law enforcement. Yet some in law enforcement are wary of such efforts. "We certainly take any information that anyone has regarding an offender," says Randy Newcomb, an investigator with the New York State Police in Canandaigua, N.Y. However, vigilantes expose themselves to liability for entrapment or possession of child porn and might not properly maintain digital evidence, Newcomb says.
Putting filtering and monitoring software on kids' computers provides some protection. SearchHelp's Sentry line, for example, blocks Web sites based on keywords and creates a log of visited sites. It also lets parents and other guardians monitor a child's activity from other computers. Parents can be notified of violations via E-mail or cell phone. Sentry also monitors IM conversations, using expertise culled from law enforcement to flag phrases commonly used by predators. Any IT pro knows of the limitations of such tools. The filters don't work perfectly, and even if kids post and browse safely, social networking sites present a new set of problems. Profiles on the sites often link to other online information sources, providing the type of data a fixated predator might use to locate a child, such as a school name, says Michelle Collins, a unit director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Investigator Newcomb recently spoke to an auditorium of elementary schoolers in western New York. He asked kids in the audience how many of them had more than 200 friends on their online buddy list--a bunch of hands shot up. Out of those, he asked how many have only friends on that list they can put a face to, and half of the hands remained raised. Finally, he asked if any of the kids had ever gone and met someone they'd got to know online, and a few hands were raised. "That's just totally frightening to me," Newcomb says. "The superintendent looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his head." It may take a village to raise a child, but in a world of online social networking, decentralized networks and servers, and increasingly tech-savvy child predators, it's going to take a united effort among government, industry, and families to keep them safe. To protect your child, you need an Internet security team of experts making sure that you, your family, and your business computer are always safe and secure.
The best protection you can have in today's rapidly changing world of cyber-attacks is to have expert support for all your Internet security needs that will provide technical support without any hassles and without charging you extra fees. It will become even more critical than it is today as time goes on. You need to find your own personal team of experts to rely on. If you ever have a security problem, you will want to have a trusted expert you can call for professional help, without any hassles and extra costs!
Remember: When you say "No!" to hackers and spyware, everyone wins! When you don't, we all lose.
Etienne A. Gibbs, Internet Safety Advocate, recommends to individuals and small business owners the protection (including free lifetime technical support and $25,000 identity theft insurance and recovery) package he uses. For more information, visit http://www.SayNotoHackersandSpyware.com/.
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Explaining the perils of social networking to a preteen can be arduous and often unfruitful. It can also be useless to forbid preteens from social networking while all of their friends utilize Facebook via mobile phones or personal computers. Fortunately, there is a happy medium. Instead of using mainstream websites which generally cater to 13 plus audiences, NPR has compiled a list of Top Ten Social Networking Sites for Kids.
These websites offer top notch safety features to satisfy parents but they also successfully incorporate the varied interests of tweens. Some of these websites offer games and "hangout" opportunities, while others serve as forums for upcoming fashionistas and music gurus. There are several available websites such as GirlSense and Sweetyhigh that are restricted to all-girl membership. Others, such as WhatsWhat.me offer social networking for children over the age of seven.
The truly impressive aspect of these websites lies in the innovative safety features offered. Yoursphere, for example, subjects parents to background checks before their children can create an account. In addition, it vets its members against a registered sex offender database to further ensure safety. Imbee offers excellent opportunities for parents to remain involved while their children learn to network online.
There is no foolproof way for parents to ensure cyber safety; however, educating youth about their cyber footprints and the need for caution is a critical first step. As we become further engrossed in this age of iPhones and Facebook, both parents and tweens can find solace in remaining informed.
* 34% record video, up from 19% (the biggest year-to-year jump: 15%)* 38% access the Net, up from 25% (the 2nd biggest jump: 13%)* 76% take photos on their phones, up from 66% a year ago (10% jump, tying with...)* 30% send/receive instant messages, up from 20% (10% jump)* 34% send/receive email, up from 25% (9% jump)* 34% play games, up from 27% (7% jump)* 72% text on phones, up from 66% (6% jump)
What does this mean for your family?
- Technology is moving faster now than ever before and people are adopting the new technology at much faster rates. Keep technology a conversation in your family, asking often how everyone in the family is using it. For example, yesterday's cell phone is today's computer.
- There are parental controls for many devices and systems. They will help, but no program is going to keep your family as safe as you will. Depending on the device and the individual child, know what they are doing any time they connect to the internet (even if it is via a cell phone).
- The social networking fad seems to be sticking around long enough to no longer be considered a "fad". Sign up to the services your kids use (or want to use). See for yourself what they want to do. You will be better suited to understand what the kids are talking about when you have gone through the process.
How has technology changed your life? Do you look forward to new techno-gadgets? Has technology changed your family in any way?
Social networking sites, sometimes referred to as "friend-of-a-friend" sites, build upon the concept of traditional social networks where you are connected to new people through people you already know. The purpose of some networking sites may be purely social, allowing users to establish friendships or romantic relationships, while others may focus on establishing business connections.
Although the features of social networking sites differ, they all allow you to provide information about yourself and offer some type of communication mechanism (forums, chat rooms, email, instant messenger) that enables you to connect with other users. On some sites, you can browse for people based on certain criteria, while other sites require that you be "introduced" to new people through a connection you share. Many of the sites have communities or subgroups that may be based on a particular interest.
Social networking sites rely on connections and communication, so they encourage you to provide a certain amount of personal information. When deciding how much information to reveal, people may not exercise the same amount of caution as they would when meeting someone in person because
the internet provides a sense of anonymitythe lack of physical interaction provides a false sense of securitythey tailor the information for their friends to read, forgetting that others may see itthey want to offer insights to impress potential friends or associatesWhile the majority of people using these sites do not pose a threat, malicious people may be drawn to them because of the accessibility and amount of personal information that's available. The more information malicious people have about you, the easier it is for them to take advantage of you. Predators may form relationships online and then convince unsuspecting individuals to meet them in person. That could lead to a dangerous situation. The personal information can also be used to conduct a social engineering attack (see Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks for more information). Using information that you provide about your location, hobbies, interests, and friends, a malicious person could impersonate a trusted friend or convince you that they have the authority to access other personal or financial data.
Additionally, because of the popularity of these sites, attackers may use them to distribute malicious code. Sites that offer applications developed by third parties are particularly susceptible. Attackers may be able to create customized applications that appear to be innocent while infecting your computer or sharing your information without your knowledge.
Children are especially susceptible to the threats that social networking sites present. Although many of these sites have age restrictions, children may misrepresent their ages so that they can join. By teaching children about internet safety, being aware of their online habits, and guiding them to appropriate sites, parents can make sure that the children become safe and responsible users (see Keeping Children Safe Online for more information).
Related information
Author: Mindi McDowell Produced 2006, 2009, 2011 by US-CERT, a government organization. Terms of use
