Facebook meme security risks

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Olivia Storey

Social Media is a fantastic tool for connecting friends and family, if used safely, but it does give another avenue for hackers and cyber criminals to gain information.

A new Facebook meme is circulating which requests users to ask friends to reveal which festival or concert they attended first out of a list of 10.

The issue falls in answering the question. “What was the first concert you attended” is a popular security question, and by revealing, your answer could allow hackers to use it to access your accounts.

This is a very good example of revealing too much personal information about yourself online, via Social Media and these ‘quizzes’ and memes.

We speak to Mark James, ESET IT Security Specialist, and he highlights the dangers of revealing too much personal information online and how to stay safe when surfing the web.

“With so much of our data being involved in data breaches and security incidents, we should really be doing more to protect what little we have left to protect.

“Even the simplest snippets of data can all be used for identity theft or further scams, so by all means take part in these social events, but remember you don’t always have to tell the truth.

“This particular one asks for the first concert you attended, but rather pick a favourite or just one you remember for whatever reason.

“We need to understand the security implications of sharing our lives with one and all.

“It may seem like harmless fun but not when we are using the same data for password recovery or as another level of authentication.

“While we are on the subject of using Social Media, remember we can be creative. No one really knows your favourite colour or all the other personal info we see on various posts, especially those ones asking for 10 or 20 questions all about “you”.

You should really treat anything personal exactly as intended: personal.

“If I were to knock your front door asking you to give me 14 facts about you to share with my friends, you would shake your head and close the door.

“So why do we feel we have to do it on Facebook or other social media applications? The reason is quite simply, we wrongly believe it is private.

 

Have you seen similar posts on Facebook? Let us know on Twitter @ESETUK.

 

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