Protecting Your Privacy On Facebook

Link to us: http://sn.im/fbsecuretips


Facebook.com, Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy! by Facebook.com
Retrieved 16 March 2010
URL: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5930262681&4

Nowadays, a lot of teenagers are using social networking sites communicate with each others. The most attractive and famous social networking site using by teenagers are Facebook. Many teenagers are visiting the social networks of their older friends, siblings and other relations just to keep up with the fun. Facebook, as you know, is a social network that allows groups and individuals to create their own little corner of the Internet, and people can communicate with each other, share their interests, photos, videos, songs and so on.

But do you know that online fraudsters are always target on Facebook and other social networking sites to harvest information about you. So, now you may ask "How safety Facebook is?" Answer is Facebook has provided some options to protect your online privacy but it was up to you to customize them by yourself. Here we will recommend you few ways to set your Facebook privacy options to protect against online identity theft.

Step 1: Customize Privacy Settings to help protect your identity
At the bottom of every web page on Facebook, there is a link called "Privacy Settings". You can change your profile information like your name, current city and gender. You also can control who can see you in search results of Facebook and set a block list which can control who can interact with you on Facebook. After customize, you can use the "How others see you" tool on Facebook privacy setting to preview and make sure your privacy settings are properly set up.

Step 2: Think carefully before accept any friend requests
Once you have accepted someone as your friend they will able to access any information about you. They might be using your photo and identity for certain purposes. You can remove any friends at anytime when you change your mind about someone.

Step 3: Show "limited friends" half version of your profile
You can choose to make people into "limited friends" who only have access to half version of your profile that you customize it. This can make more secure when you have interact with who you do not wish to give full personal information and status to, or feel uncomfortable sharing information with.

Lastly, Facebook can be a real joy because it can help you keeping in touch with relatives, sharing information with friends and family. But always remember keeping your personal information private and secure when you are using Facebook.

Reference:

allfacebook.com, 10 Privacy Setting Every Facebook User Should Know, by Nick O'Neill
Retrieved on 16th March 2010
URL: http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/

Cyber Security Tips: Protect Your Privacy

Link to us: http://snipr.com/cybersecuritytips

Nowadays, cyber crime activities are on the rise and become a serious threat. Everyday we might receive uncountable phishing emails from online fraudsters. We should take action to prevent before we become one of the victims of cybercrime. The following steps are simple explanations to protect your privacy when you are using Internet.

Step 1: Read through website privacy policy
Before you fill in your name, email address and other personal information into a website, read clearly the content of the website privacy policy. This policy should state how the information will be used and whether or not the information will be give to other organizations. Some companies may share your information with partner vendors who offer products or options to subscribe to particular mailing lists. You might be added into the mailing lists and receive unwanted spam emails. If you cannot find a privacy policy on a website, try to contact the company to require about the policy before you submit your personal information, or find another website. Remember review the privacy policy regularly because it may change by the company.

Step 2: Confirm that your information is being encrypted
To protect your personal information steal by online fraudsters, any information that submit online should encrypt so that only can read by the appropriate recipient. How to confirm the information that we submit has been encrypt? Many website use SSL which is secure sockets layer to encrypt information. A website that using secure sockets layer to encrypt information will include a URL that begins with "https:" instead of "http:" , https is a secure protocol and often used for payment transactions. For example, CIMB online banking is using https for CIMB Bank secure e-pay, https://www.cimbsecuree-pay.com.my/

Step 3: Avoid submit credit card information online
Certain websites may require you to provide your credit card information. It may give the chances to online fraudsters to steal your credit card information during the submission process. So, don't simply give out your credit card information.

Step 4: Avoid website remember your password
Avoid allow a website to remember your password because if your password being stored, your profile and any account information you have provided on that website can easily access by online fraudsters. Always evaluate and customize your privacy settings on websites used for social networking because other might grab your information from social networking sites and misuse your personal information for certain purposes.

Except that, we should clearly know about what kinds of Malaysian cyber law can protect personal privacy. For instance, MCMC Act which is Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act 1998 can control the accuracy of the content publish online, broadcast and other media. On the other hand, Computer Crime Act 1997 used to against the misuses computers and computer criminal activites. The new cyber law which enforce on Oct 2009 is Personal Data Protection Act is aimed to be safeguard to every Individual Internet user's private data and prevent Internet users misuse one's private data. As Internet users, we should gain more Malaysian cyber law knowledge to protect our own personal privacy.


References:
1. LawEddie.com, Current Cyber Laws in Malaysia, by Eddie Law
Retrieved on 11th March 2010
URL: http://www.laweddie.com/wordpress/current-cyber-laws-in-malaysia/

2. instantssl.com, Https: What is it and how does it works, by instantssl.com
Retrieved on 11th March 2010
URL: http://instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-products/https.html

Avoid Phishing to Violate Your Privacy

Link to Us: http://snipr.com/avoidphishing

In previous, phishing threatens your privacy by stealing your bank account details, passwords, credit card numbers and others without your knowledge. To protect your online information you could always identify the emails you received whether are phishing scams or not then, you would not easily to be cheated.

Once you have identify that particular email is not authentic and it is a phishing email, you never click on links and download the attachments. It is all because those links could be controlled by the fraudsters and hackers at the other servers and the server could obtain your personal information and hack your account once you log in the fake system with your real id and password. On the other hand, attachments are usually containing virus, spyware that could steal your online activities too. Hackers send you the attachments, once you download it, those viruses and spyware would start to gather your information without your consent.

So now you are aware of the phishing emails, what kind of computer setting that could strengthen your protection of your online privacy?

The answer is PROXY. Set up proxy or use firewall in your computer. They could monitor your online activities and scan transmitted file before it delivers to your computer. Proxy also could guard your computer by stopping any threats which included spyware or malware. Proxy filters the content of the site and URL so, it could help to block suspicious content to be sent to your computer, deny access to those blacklisted sites and prevent unauthorized users to interrupt your online activities. Moreover, firewall could filter and detect any suspicious files or viruses too. They could detect and guard your computer when other servers are trying to intrude or hack your computer.



Reference:
Bradley Mitchell, Proxy Servers Tutorial - About Proxy Servers, About.com [Online]
Retrieved on 24th January 2010
URL: http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/proxyservers/a/proxyservers.htm

Phishing Threatens Your Online Privacy?

Link to Us: http://snipr.com/threatenprivacy

Nowadays, the cyber world can be dangerous and threatening. All of us need to be alert and against all the possible threats when we use Internet. Everyone also need to strengthen their Internet knowledge to protect themselves from become the victims of phishing.

How to city, video articles, tips things, How to avoid online security threats and online frauds [Online]
Image Retrieved on 22nd January 2010.
URL: http://www.goc.vn/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/online_fraud.jpg

So what is "phishing"?

"Phishing" pronounces as "fishing". Basically, phishing is a technique that hackers, fraudsters request and obtain other people's personal information such as credit card numbers, password under a false pretense of a particular web page such as online banking through Internet.

Many Internet users received anonymous emails that state they have problem to log in to the system and request them to go to the provided link and insert their log in id and password. The provided link could be fake and it controls by the hacker or fraudster at the other server. Once you enter your log in details, fraudster might obtain those information and hack into your account. If more serious, you might lose money!

Here is a video to help you understand more on how phishing works?

Phishing Scams in Plain English, leelefever, Youtube [online]
Video Retrieved on 22nd January 2010
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqRZGhiHGxg


Protect your online information by spotting a phishing email then you would not become a phishing victim. Please be reminded, bank will never ask you to confirm your account details by an emails so, you also need to beware of other phishing emails which look like send by other possible companies that you trust! We conclude three ways to find out a phishing email:

Step 1: Check your name.
Your name will not appear in the emails. Usually fraudsters write "Dear Valued Customer" because the same email sends to many people. Therefore, it is not trustable.

Step 2: Check for the spelling mistake.
Phishing emails use the real logo and the name of the company but it is not authentic if you found spelling mistake in the emails include the title. A fake site usually contains mistakes!

Step 3: Look at the URL links attach in the emails.
If the emails ask you to click on the provided, never click it and you check the link whether is look different from the original web site URL. This anonymous link hosts by the fraudsters, it just looks like similar to the original web site URL if you are not aware of it.

If you found out these three suspicious points in the emails that you have received please don't reply and click on anythings, it is phishing scams! You could be safe from phishing and protect your online information easily.

Reference:

John Bisner, How Online Security Threats Can Damage Your Computer, Knol [Online]
Retrieved on 22nd January 2010
URL: http://knol.google.com/k/how-online-security-threats-can-damage-your-computer#

Protect Yourself When You Shop Online

Link to Us: http://snipr.com/protectu

Nowadays, more people prefer to do online shopping because it is convenient and fast. Do you ever doubt that the sites that you purchase something from is safe and secure? When you purchase something through online, you need to reveal your personal details such as credit card numbers, CVC code (Card Security Code, and others to make payment. Then, would you worry if you reveal all these personal details to the site is safe or not? Before you start purchase something from certain sites and confirm payment please do check some security statement or policy. Here are some guidelines to help you protect your private information when you shop online:

First,do check the site whether is secured. A secure site, it will start with https://. Normally, a pad lock icon will come along with https:// and you can see it in many browsers such as Mozilla Firefox. Why choose the site which is start with https://? Actually, https:// is the safe version of the site that could prevent hacking, scamming therefore, and users can purchase items from the site safer. https:// secures the web site that you are visiting by giving protection such as your personal information that you key in to the web site is encrypted therefore, none of the unauthorized Internet users could access to the same web site or web page that you visit and read your personal information.

Next, do shopping at the site which is verified by SSL (Secure Sockets Layer 3.0). A SSL verified site enables to secure e-commerce or communication through internet. Many online banking or e-banking websites are secured by SSL. Thus, you could handle all your transaction through the online banking easily. SSL is a technology that can prevent other internet users interrupt and change the messages, details, transactions and other private information when we do online shopping especially make payment. Currently, the SSL technology is replaced by TLS (Transport Layer Security 1.1) and it works similar like SSL.

Lastly, read the terms and condition before you make purchase. Many online shopping sites include policy or terms and condition; please understand all the rules before you really start any purchasing. This to help yourself to understand the security statement and also the promises the sites make for you such as they promise they will keep your personal data as private and confidential and they would not reveal to any other companies.

A little reminder: please check for the online shopping website’s background. Have a clear mind on the history of the site to ease you check whether the site has any bad records. Thus, you could stop purchasing something from there. Please do not simply reveal any of your personal information to the sites. It might be dangerous because you information might be stole by third party.

When you want to buy something from internet, remember to check all the security statement and the verify sign.