2008 Woodie Awards
Prying parents become Facebook phenomenon
Screening profiles for roommate suitability
Chris Stroud
Issue date: 8/31/07 Section: Forum
To avoid prying eyes, some users opt to keep their profile private. Unfortunately, even if students mark their profiles as private, they may not be as hidden as many think they are. Talking with "Wired News, "Security researcher Christopher Soghoian says many pages that are supposedly private are in fact visible to searches based on religion, sexual orientation or relationship status when indexed by search engines.
Along with designating the page as private, users must also change their preferences under search options. Otherwise the name, photos, and personal information is still quite visible to search engines and prying eyes.
Even more troubling from a security standpoint is the accidental leaking of a small part of Facebook's source code earlier this month. While a spokesperson for Facebook stated that the briefly exposed code was not a security breach, some security experts disagreed. Developer Nik Cubrilovic wrote in a "TechCrunch" blog posting that the leaked code could reveal vulnerabilities in Facebook's applications that could be exploited. "From just this single page of source code, a lot can be said and extrapolated about the rest of the Facebook application and platform," he said. "At a quick glance, I know that I can see some obvious things in the code that both reveal certain hidden aspects of the platform and give a potential attacker a good head start."
Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security, concurs telling ABCNews.com, "All the social networking sites are rife with security problems and the targets of hackers as well… There's widespread hacking at social networking sites."
To back up his point, Graham recently demonstrated the vulnerability of such sites in public Wi-Fi hotspots at the recent Black Hat Hackers' conference in Las Vegas. According to Graham, hackers can easily take control of a Facebook profile with a cookie-stealing program. And then of course they have control of all of the personal information listed on the site.
Just remember that Facebook is supposed to be a fun and exciting way to meet and interact with new people. But also remember to use common sense when posting information on the site.
If you don't want your parents, a potential grad school or future boss or the parents of your potential roommate to see it, DO NOT post it on Facebook.
Never post bank information, social security numbers or any other personal financial information, period.
Along with designating the page as private, users must also change their preferences under search options. Otherwise the name, photos, and personal information is still quite visible to search engines and prying eyes.
Even more troubling from a security standpoint is the accidental leaking of a small part of Facebook's source code earlier this month. While a spokesperson for Facebook stated that the briefly exposed code was not a security breach, some security experts disagreed. Developer Nik Cubrilovic wrote in a "TechCrunch" blog posting that the leaked code could reveal vulnerabilities in Facebook's applications that could be exploited. "From just this single page of source code, a lot can be said and extrapolated about the rest of the Facebook application and platform," he said. "At a quick glance, I know that I can see some obvious things in the code that both reveal certain hidden aspects of the platform and give a potential attacker a good head start."
Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security, concurs telling ABCNews.com, "All the social networking sites are rife with security problems and the targets of hackers as well… There's widespread hacking at social networking sites."
To back up his point, Graham recently demonstrated the vulnerability of such sites in public Wi-Fi hotspots at the recent Black Hat Hackers' conference in Las Vegas. According to Graham, hackers can easily take control of a Facebook profile with a cookie-stealing program. And then of course they have control of all of the personal information listed on the site.
Just remember that Facebook is supposed to be a fun and exciting way to meet and interact with new people. But also remember to use common sense when posting information on the site.
If you don't want your parents, a potential grad school or future boss or the parents of your potential roommate to see it, DO NOT post it on Facebook.
Never post bank information, social security numbers or any other personal financial information, period.
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