Top Ten Tips for Shockproofing Your Use of Social Media, Lavacon 2011
1. Ten Tips to Shockproof Your
Use of Social Media
Ben Woelk
Policy and Awareness Analyst
Rochester Institute of Technology
ben.woelk@gmail.com
@benwoelk
10. Tip #5 Use Social Networks Safely
Don’t:
• Post personal information
• Post schedules or whereabouts
• Post inappropriate photos
http://www.sileo.com/facebook-status-update-leads-to-robbery/
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11. Phishing on Social Network Sites
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http://www.markmonitor.com/download/bji/BrandjackingIndex-Spring2009.pdf
12. Tip #6 Remember Who Else is There
• Who else uses social networking?
– Employers
– Identity Thieves
– Online Predators
• Facebook Stalker
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCh9bmg0zGg)
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13. What You Post Can Be Used To…
• Make judgments
about your character
• Impersonate you to
financial institutions
• Monitor what you do
and where you go
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14. Tip #7 Be wary of others
Is this really your
friend?
• Just because it’s your
friend’s account does
not mean that it’s your
friend!
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15. Tip #8 Search for your name
• Do a vanity search
• Set up a Google Alert
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16. Tip #9 Guard Your Personal
Information!
• Watch out for
Facebook
Applications!!
– A 2008 study found
that 90.7% of apps
had access to
private user data
(only 9.3% actually
used the data)
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17. Tip #10: Don’t Assume Privacy
• Do you care if Facebook captures where
you’ve been?
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18. Use Privacy Settings
• Default settings are set to sharing information
• Adjust Facebook privacy settings to help
protect your identity
• Show "limited friends" a cut-down version of
your profile
• Disable options,
then open them one by one
http://www.sophos.com/security/best-practice/facebook.html
19. The First Line of Defense
Stay alert—you will be the first to know if
something goes wrong
– Are you receiving odd communications from
someone?
– Is your computer sounding strange or slower
than normal?
20. Practice Digital Self Defense
• Infosec Communicator blog
• @benwoelk
• @RIT_Infosec 20