Facebook Groups suffer from a major flaw. If a administrator of a group leaves, anyone can register as a new admin. So, in order to take control of a Facebook group, all you really have to do is a quick search on Google.

When you’re admin of a group, you can basically do anything you want with it. You can change it’s name, and the groups members won’t even get a notification of it. You can send mails to all members and edit info. This is just one example that really shows the vulnerabilities of social media. If you chose to express yourself on the internet, make sure the expressions are your own and not a spammers. This isn’t some kind of scare tactics, nor is it a hack, it’s a feature that can be used, and is being used, in bad ways. Remember, control your info! Also, this project is strictly not for profit and done for a good cause.

Comments?

If you have comments on this project or want to become a fan on Facebook, check
Control Your Info Fan Page on Facebook.

Update

Apparently Facebook has shut off our Fan Page. Seems like there are different views on what we’ve been doing, like these two sites: Hundreds of Facebook Groups Hacked and Facebook Groups Hacked.
So, is it hacking? No. This is NOT hacking, by any definitions of the term at all. A take-over? Yes, that we can agree on. Since the Facebook Fan Page got taken down, we guess you will have to contact us by commenting on our YouTube account right now: www.youtube.com/user/controlyourinfo.

By adding and/or confirming a friend on Facebook you mutually agree that you know each other. Many times this is still not the case, but there is no way for Facebook to figure this out. You’re either friends with somebody or you’re not. It could be a good idea to limit the access to your information for some of your not so close friends. And this requires some work. Don´t underestimate the value of categorizing your Facebook friends into various lists. Rather create small and targeted lists than big and generally applicable. This will make it easier to control your communication. To make sure you don’t get stalked on Twitter you can choose to protect your tweets in the settings.

Related article:
Facebook Privacy Settings

Groups

When joining a group on Facebook check its settings. Is it public? Can anyone join? Does it have an administrator? This is important for several reasons: A public group will show on your profile. It can also be viewable to anyone, which means everybody can see all the members of the group. An open group that has no administrator can easily be taken over by anyone. The consequences of this may be devastating for the members. If you create a group you should consider the following aspects of security: Every person you grant administrator rights can change every setting option for the group, including the group’s name. The group will be open and public unless you change this in the settings.

Pages

When becoming fan of a page on Facebook be aware of the fact that anyone can see that you are a fan.

Over the past few years it has become a custom for many companies to use social networking sites as a natural part of their hiring process. Sites like Facebook are great sources for information about both future and current employees. Even if you choose to limit the access to your content it’s still not a guarantee that professional Facebook lurkers can’t get hold of your private information and sell it to your potential employers. Keep that in mind when you publish something and ask yourself this question: would I be comfortable having my boss or colleagues viewing this? Always check what your friends are posting about you. Even if they mean well, they accidentally might give away too much information.

Photos/Videos.

When uploading photos or videos to social media networks be sure to bare in mind that it’s possible to restrict the access to private albums, so that only your close friends can view them Tagging is a great feature but you do want to keep track of the photos that end up in your album. You can do so by setting your defaults so you approve all the material linked to your profile. Check all your walls and pictures daily, so you have a fair chance to remove inappropriate tags of yourself.

Profile

If you choose to expose your full name it will be a lot easier for strangers to find you and your content. If you use a nickname because you don’t want to be found, make sure that it’s not too unique – the more common your name is, the harder you will be to track down. Make sure your profile´s privacy settings are accurate to what you really want to reveal. Facebook provides a lot of adjustment possibilities that are easily managed and the people you wish to block will not be announced.

Related articles:
Facebook Privacy Settings
Preparing for Job Hunt — Cleaning Up Your Facebook Profile

Blogs

To make sure your blog doesn’t cause you any trouble, you should maintain your personal privacy while writing about delicate subjects. This way you don´t have to face the consequence that may prevent you from expressing yourself truthfully. For instance, don´t give away revealing information and be sure to use blog hosts that don´t require real names.

More handy tips and tricks:
Blogging Anonymously

#2

#1

Find more funny links like these at Facebook Fails or at Failblog.

Using strong passwords can’t be stressed enough. The use of weak passwords has in the history of computing been one of the major security issues, and still today in the late 21st century it is one of the main security issues.

So, how can you make a strong password?

1. You should avoid a password containing any single word or any combination of just common words, since your password can be found by a password-cracking program that uses dictionaries to combine words.

2. You should avoid using only personal information, since that could be picked up by someone who happens to get your social security number, your middle name, your parents’ names etc.

3. You should avoid too short passwords, because even random passwords that are too short can be cracked by so-called brute-force cracking programs that tests all possible combinations of characters until they find a match. When we’re talking about passwords online, in general passwords over 8 characters is quite an alright protection for these kind of password crackers, but remember: the longer the better.

Password Example #1

The strongest kinds of passwords, if you manage to remember totally random characters, are like:

“8lf02.e2-4fzcfc”

Password Example #2

Since a lot of people might have trouble remembering such passwords, here’s a good alternative way. Use several random words (not a common sentence!), and add some numbers in between words (redwood, manager, barrel) , and also exchange some letters for a number or other character:

“red4ood98manag3r..barre1″

Password Example #3

If you need even something more easy to associate to, pick up elements from your life, that no one that you know could ever know. Let’s say, you pick the colour (yellow) of the fifth house on the right of the street where you grew up, the name of the second pet (garfield) spelled backwards, and a character (Jack Sparrow) from your favourite movie, but with some characters in the name replaced:

“yellow5dleifrag2j4cksp.rr0w”

Even Stronger Passwords

To make these passwords even stronger, it would be a great idea to capitalize some letters in the passwords, like this:

“8lF02.e2-4fZCfc”

“reD4oOD98maNAg3r..BArRe1″

“yeLLOw5dlEIfraG2j4cKSp.rR0w”

When you are using words, another good tip is to use words from more than one language if you know more than one.

Also, if you are using a computer in a totally safe environment at home — where there never will be anyone looking through the papers in your desk drawers, it isn’t at all a bad idea to have a handwritten password there, in case you’d forget the password. However, never save a password on your computer — in case you ever get a malware infection or intrusion on your computer, that password might get picked up by the malware/intruder!

If you want some more technical information about how passwords are cracked by those sinister minds, you could start by reading more on these resources:
Wikipedia: Password Cracking
Wikipedia: Password Strength

Longevity

One thing to always take in account whenever you put up any kind of information at all on the Internet: chances are that the information that once have been put online, stays online for as long as Internet exists. Information and files have a tendency to get copied to one place or the other, by both humans and different kinds of online spiders or services.

Therefore, ask yourself: will I always in the future be comfortable with this material being online?

Trusting websites.

History shows us, that people in general seem to trust that big sites on the Internet can be considered safe, because there are professional people keeping the sites secure. Again, history shows us that so is not the case. Many big sites have had major password database leaks, including big ones like Hotmail, Twitter and The Pirate Bay. Keep in mind: Internet security is a very complex matter, and no site online is 100% secure. This is a very good reason to use different passwords on different sites.

Phishing.

A common way of getting passwords, especially Instant Messaging or E-mail passwords, is to trick users to entering their login information on a site that looks official. Always make sure to check the address bar in your browser, so you don’t try to login on your mail account on the wrong server — even though the site looks exactly the same as it usually does.