Sunday, June 19, 2011

How to stay safe on twitter

 Although I have written about how to stay on Facebook a bit I have not written much about how to stay safe on Twitter. So I thought I would like to take some time and share some tips:

 Twitter is a like a big online conversation, with it you can meet people you would never get to know in real life. I will admit I have met a lot of different people that I would have never gotten to know in real life through twitter. However that does not mean twitter is fully safe and twitter still has its own security threats we need to worry about them. Here are some of the types of threats you may run into on twitter:

 Mention Spam: Mention Spam are @messages sent to users when they mention a certain topic. For example one day I mentioned the Iphone and start receiving messages inviting me to go to sites where I could get a free one. Clicking on these "offers" will just give away much personal data to some random company someplace in the world.

 Malware Link: These work the same as any other site, a short linked url is posted and you are tempted to click on it. Once you click on it you are lead to an exploit page where you machine is infected with malware.

 Scam/Spam Apps: Facebook is not the only one who has "who viewed your profile" or "How long have I been on (social network)" apps. These apps will try to offer you surveys to gain cash for the spam app writer.

  These are just some of the examples that spread on twitter. Now I am not hear just to list everything that can go wrong. I honestly like social networks as long as you use them safely. Here are some tips for staying safe on Twitter.




 Extract URLS: Do not just go and click on short links. Expand them and check out where they are going to before you just click on the links. If the short link points to another short link it is not a good sign.

 Check URLS: Don't just click on the URLS, use a site like Web Of Trust to check out the sites reputation.You never just buy any product without research so researching the site is also a good idea.

 If it sounds...: to good to be true is most likely is. No one is going to give you something that great free without a catch. Its always a good idea to use common sense while surfing the net.

 No app can: tell you who is viewing you profile or how long you have been using the network. Avoid apps that say they can.

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