Despite repeated warnings and advices to stay alert keep personal data in private on social-networking sites, Facebook users are still very much laid backed when it comes to security.
IT security vendor, Sophos, created two falsely named accounts – using anagrams of the words “false identity” and “stolen identity”, for its research.
One of them, Daisy Feletin (21, single), was represented by a picture of a rubber duck toy and the other, Dinette Stonily (56, married), with two cats lying on a rug. Each of them sent out friend request to 100 randomly-selected contacts in their age group. After two weeks, 46% accepted Daisy Feletin while 41% accepted Dinette Stonily plus 8 users befriended Dinette on thier own.
Once connected, the fake profiles were able to access a significant amount of personal information from their new friends: 89% birthdays, 100% emails, 46% of their friends and family data.
“Ten years ago, getting access to this sort of detail would probably have taken a con-artist or an identify thief several weeks, and have required the on-the-spot services of a private investigator. Sadly, these days, many social networkers are handing over their life story on a plate,” according to Sophos on its blog.
Take 30 minutes and keep your information safe, don’t feel burdened or stress to check out the Facebook Privacy Settings, or at least keep the must have privacy settings in place to keep yourself safe.
