Over the last few months since we launched SocialSafe as a backup tool for Facebook, we have seen it used for many different purposes: for account security (our original intent); to overcome the Walled Garden issue with getting data out of Facebook; to preserve your social history for the future using our Time Capsule feature. However, the core functionality of allowing you to have your own copy of your Facebook data seems as important as ever as Facebook, with its truly phenomenal reach, becomes an ever bigger target for cyber hackers.
Today there was yet another article (from www.mediamughals.com) which shows the increasing sophistication of attacks on Facebook and hence the threat to user’s data. Many of the attacks to date seem to be intended to lure users to other non-Facebook sites which can then infect a user’s computer with viruses, spyware, et al; however, the increasing sophistication of those targeting Facebook will pose ever greater threats to user’s own Facebook accounts. If someone with bad intent can take over a valid Facebook account and send out spurious status messages with links to malware, then the likelihood of friends of that hijacked user going to the bad sites must increase significantly. Facebook account hijacking will unfortunately become more common it seems – you only need to enter the terms “Facebook” and “hack” into Google or a Twitter search to see the intent out there. Having your account hijacked will probably result in it being closed by Facebook and/or your data lost – a major blow in this social network era.
The benefits of using Facebook are its incredible reach and its many useful functions; the perils are that its popularity leads those with bad intent to see it is a juicy target. However, you do it, having your own data available to you to be able to restore your account seems to be as prudent a step in protecting against cyber hackers as having a virus checker on your PC.
Just wanted to add to Julian’s post (I work for SocialSafe too) about a friend who’s account was hijacked last week and used to send Facebook chats, notifications and private messages out about fantastic money making schemes, I mean scams! His account is still up for now but he had a few of us wondering whether he’d become a very dodgy salesman.