Monday, April 4, 2011

Facebook hacked and Things you should be Careful about when Using Facebook

I read somewhere that vis-a-vis our population, Malaysia has a significant percentage of membership in social media sites like Facebook, My Space and Twitter. Malaysians also make up a sizable number of bloggers. Given the borderless world where technology is concerned, everyone is equally vulnerable to security hiccups anywhere in the world, and equally liable to fall prey to scammers, hackers and the like.

I read about a med student who on March 24 clicked on a Facebook user's link to vote in a competition led to her receiving a message, allegedly from the hacker, saying that he would hack into her Facebook account unless she paid him RM200.

He also threatened that he would create and post fake nude pictures of her on her Facebook account.

She deleted all her pictures in her Facebook and even changed her name and thought it would be the end of it, but he still managed to upload her picture onto her Facebook account and revert it to her real name.

The hacker had given her a mobile phone number and also a bank account number. She managed to trace a photograph of the suspect based on the suspect's mobile phone number and made a police report in Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong, who highlighted the case, said that the department had received nine similar complaints last year and four cases were reported to him this year, including this case.

Unfortunately, nothing in this world is foolproof. We just need to take proper precautions so that we do not expose ourselves to liabilities.

Here are 5 Things You Should Be Careful About When Using Facebook!

Even President of United States of America Barak Obama has also advised Facebook users to be careful about what they post on their Facebook profiles. Important video to watch. Take a look..

12 comments:

  1. actually as far as this is concerned,you just can't be too careful cos sometimes these crooks are very smart,,

    As for me, never kow tow to any type of threat even in cyber space, for example if one day,someone were to post a doctored nude of me in the net, so what the bottom line is,, it is not me,,,

    take care now only sharing my thought

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  2. oh that's very terrible.. but i guess once you're into the internet, nothing is safe.. all are transparent and you are revealing everything about yourself, so we should always be cautious and stay alert on what we are doing to minimise the impact..

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  3. Yes, we bloggers and Facebookers are all vulnerable to the hackers. It's good to take precautions and I never like to reveal my face online.

    Those who are not careful and reveal everything about themselves are just asking for trouble.

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  4. Many people simply disclose too many details on facebook. It's already stated that it is not on secure site, wonder why they still do it?

    I am careful about who I add, only people I know. I do get some strangers trying to add me and they always get ignored.

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  5. Well....the thing is we shouldn't click on anything blindly. :/

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  6. better be safe than sorry.

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  7. Hi Eugene, good to see you here. I totally agree with what you said about smart crooks.

    Aisehman, so I'll never get a pinup of you? Oops!

    Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

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  8. SK, certainly good advice on staying alert.

    Yeah, geotagging is real and experts can use that to their great advantage to meet their needs.

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  9. Foong, you are wise. Don't trouble trouble.... eh?

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  10. Ai Shiang, scary thought, huh?

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  11. Tekkaus, of course it's not just Facebook. Every online platform that we get on puts us at an increased risk - blog, twitter, etc.

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