Common sense advice worth repeating: (In response to the story: “Internet scam moves to Facebook – Tupper Lake man’s friends messaged with money requests after alleged travel issue”)
By Donald McBrayer
Many Facebook users make the mistake of using important personal dates, family member & pet names, or even simple combinations like “1234” or “qwerty” as passwords.
Because your Facebook profile is public, someone could silently track you learning a great deal of information. Over the course of a few weeks an average Facebook user will post about his kids, pets, address, schedule, occupation, birthday & anniversary dates, and almost anything in their personal lives. A hacker only needs to collect the names and important numbers in your life and then try logging into your account by typing them in. Lets’ say your dog is named Muffy. And “muffy” also happens to be your password, and you have several posts on Facebook about Muffy: “Muffy needs a bath,” “Muffy chased the cat,” “I bought Muffy a squeak toy!” How long would it take for a hacker to type “muffy” into your password login field?
When creating a password for any computer activity create one that is a combination of letters and numbers not related to anything in your personal life. Also use combinations of upper and lower case letters. If other characters are allowed, use them as well. “DjP4f9!5o&2k” is much harder to guess than “muffy.”
Also, be very careful about what personal information you post to your Facebook wall . . . you never know who’s watching.
Posted: December 10th, 2010 under General News.