| Moneybookers Sees Facebook Security Issues |  |
 |
 |
| Wednesday, 21 November 2007 | |
Moneybookers Sees Facebook Security Issues(NAMC) Leading global payment provider, Moneybookers, foresees an increase in identity fraud due to the dramatic growth of Web 2.0 communities such as Facebook. According to Moneybookers security experts they are concerned that the growing popularity of Facebook combined with typical privacy settings is potentially even more threatening to personal internet security than phishing attacks. The following is exactly what Moneybookers is foreseeing: Moneybookers security department constantly analyses internet user behaviour as part of its risk analysis duties and has come to the conclusion that despite the sophisticated privacy options, Facebook has gradually turned into a major security risk. The main reasons are: - Real name, location, company and date of birth are requested in the registration process and by default shown to all networks and friends. - The sheer size of Facebook's total user base: Facebook reaches not only students any more. Due to the across-the-board success of Facebook, fraudsters can profile more people more precisely and quicker than ever before - including a rapidly growing number of potentially more 'lucrative' professionals. - Facebook pre-selects (opt-out necessary) extremely popular networks (e.g. London network for Londoners) during registration. Following Facebooks' recommendation, as a Londoner, more than 1.7 million people have access to your full profile with sensitive personal data unless you change the pre-defined settings. - Due to all the attractive applications and the private touch customisations, users also tend to publish more details about their lives than in other communities. Likely answers to common password reminder questions such as 'what's your favourite pet/movie etc' can often be found on profiles. Facebook defends itself by offering sophisticated privacy filters letting the users decide how much privacy they want to give up. However, Moneybookers security experts are concerned that the majority of users are not aware of the enormous risks they expose themselves to. They consider Facebooks' current default privacy settings to be far too risky for a social networking community of this enormous size. The Moneybookers security experts recommend Facebook users 4 things to reduce the risk of identity theft: 1) If you join a popular network, change the privacy settings so that the networks' members have no instant access to your profile. 2) Do not display your date of birth on Facebook. 3) Do not allow your Facebook profile to be indexed by external search engines. 4) Make sure that there are no password hints whatsoever on your Facebook profile. According to Moneybookers, they offer one of the most secure payment solutions worldwide. It also helps to fight cybercrime by allowing users to shop online on various sites without entering sensitive payment details again and again. The Moneybookers Security Department constantly monitors common online user behaviour and the online environment to ensure that the confidential details of all Moneybookers account holders are safe and secure. NAMC Newswire Note: NAMC Worldwide provides Investment Banking consulting services to both publicly traded and privately held companies, everything from capital raising to mergers and acquisitions. Other areas of focus are Private Commodity Transactions. Find out about our PRIVATE MAJOR PROJECT FUNDING PROGRAM for projects over $5 Billion. Acquisitions of companies or real estate, new construction and infrastructure are some examples.
|
