Social Network Users Ignore Security Data

Social Network Users Ignore Security Data

Social networking activity was able to make people forget about security of personal data. The proof, according to a recent research conducted by Consumer Reports Magazine, more than half of social networking users unwittingly share important information to people, increasing their risk of becoming targets of cyber crime. As quoted from Computerworld, 52 percent of adults who use Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter is admitted to post information and various personal facts that could be elaborated by the cyber criminals to commit identity theft. They mindlessly write some data such as full birth date, home address, plan the next vacation, and so forth. This is very dangerous because it can be exploited by those who have evil motives. From a survey of two thousand respondents from the United States, accounting for 42 percent of Facebook users admit they post the date of birth, 63 percent post their personal photos, and 8 percent notify their home address. In fact, three percent of respondents also did not hesitate to express when they'll go on holiday leaving the house. In addition, 21 percent of them also admitted to posting photos of their children and 16 percent post the names of their children. "Social networking makes a lot of people can share personal information and photos with their friends, quickly and easily. After a serious risk threatening them," said Jeff Fox, technology editor of Consumer Reports Magazine. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, citing reports from the magazine, during the last two years, Internet users United States has suffered a loss of U.S. $ 4.5 billion or approximately USD 40 trillion due to computer crime. Other important findings, proved nine percent social network users claimed to have become infected by malware, fraud, identity theft, harassment, or other forms of online infringement.