As a parent you are often worried about what your kids are being exposed to on the Internet. Apparently so are Facebook and the PTA. They have teamed up to teach parents and children about responsible Internet use. They plan to cover cyber-bullying, internet safety and security and “citizenship online,” according to a news release.
“Nothing is more important to us than the well-being of the people, especially the many teenagers, who use Facebook,” said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer.
Facebook is the number one social media site with over 500 million users and a minimum age requirement of 13. Even that requirement can be easily fudged because Facebook has no way of verifying a user’s age besides asking for their birth date when they register. Parents are having trouble deciding whether to let their children join Facebook prematurely and what they should be cautious of if they do so.
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There is no final word on how to use Facebook safely. Here’s why: social networking and the web change too quickly. The social network you use today is not the same one you will use tomorrow or next month. The privacy settings, functionality, connectability and features are constantly evolving, which means that almost no one has a handle on every aspect of this topic. Those who tell you that they have the final answer are probably selling you something you shouldn’t buy.
60 Minutes’ episode on Cyber War last night was a prime time admission that it’s time for America to start investing in robust information control. I just finished reading an excellent book on this topic by Richard Clarke appropriately labeled Cyber War. If you want further details, I strongly recommend you watch the video to the left and read Mr. Clarke’s eye-opening book on the subject. He speaks from deep experience. Here’s what we already know:
Cyber attacks have already happened on American military targets, including the Department of Defense.
Cyber thieves, in a single instance, stole enough top secret information from government sources (D.O.D., State Department) to fill the Library of Congress.
Cyber forces (military or otherwise) have already taken down power grids (Brazil), radar systems (Middle East) and military functionality (the Republic of Georgia).
What happens against military targets today will be happening against corporate targets tomorrow. There should be no excuses left.
Last week we announced that Facebook was changing their privacy settings – again! Well the new changes have arrived and should be active on your Facebook the next time you log in. The Instructions that will lead you through the new settings will be posted at the top of your mini-feed:
This page will contain a long list of descriptions of your privacy settings, what you can control and what is made public and out of your control. Click Edit your privacy settings to make the appropriate changes to protect your information and what you want to share on Facebook.
You’ve probably seen in the news that a hacker gained access into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo.com email account. The hacker used a simple scheme and basic social engineering tools (research on Google and Wikipedia, common-sense guessing) to reset the password on the account and assume ownership of her email. [For a full account of how a professor, Herbert H. Thompson, used these tools to steal a friends identity (with their permission), visit his recent and extremely interesting article, How I Stole Someone’s Identity and the companion radio interview.]
In addition to denying Governor Palin access to her own account, the hacker had full control to:
Read every saved and current email in her account (hopefully she never sent her Social Security Number, passwords or account numbers via email, not to mention correspondence pertaining to her role as candidate for Vice President of the U.S.)
Steal the email addresses and any other sensitive information stored in her contacts (John McCain might want to change his email address)
Send out emails as if the hacker were Sarah Palin, or worse yet, send out official emails as Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin
The potential for abuse is mind boggling. Sarah Palin should take immediate steps to protect her stolen identity and to secure her future privacy. Here are a sampling of the steps I would recommend:
Some readers might not know that I was a two-time victim of identity theft for losses of more than $300,000. That is the reason I wrote Stolen Lives and that I am now a professional identity theft speaker. I don’t promote my services any more than necessary on my blog (I leave that to my commercial website which deals with my profession as an identity theft speaker and expert). Quite often, however, I have blog readers requesting to see a preview video of my speaking. To satisfy that request, I’ll post a copy of my identity theft speaker preview video below. By the way, I learned the value of linking my YouTube videos, my blog and my website from an amazing SEO guy named Steve Mertz. Check out his SEO advice.
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You’ve probably seen in the news that a hacker gained access into 
