Social media: There's gold (and fool's gold) in them hills

I have to confess that I am not personally a fan of Facebook: when I’ve looked at it and considered what it can do for me, I simply find myself my drawn to other media instead, just as for many people (and there are millions of them) it seems to constitute one of those “And Now My Life Is Complete” moments.

But I do understand the buzz around social media and I love using Twitter for work - I'm a regular Tweeter (@ARM_DamianH). Nor would I dispute the fact that these, and other, social media are valuable tools for both business and lifestyle communication.

What I do wonder about is how much of what goes on within social networking sites is a waste of time. I'm talking about the whole raft of sites and communications tools that comprise the social networking world here. But let’s be fair - if you’re going to ask that, you need also to consider its corollary: how much is of great value? It’s like the Henry Ford joke about advertising: he knows that half his advertising works brilliantly….he’s just not sure which half. (And I'm not sure if he was smiling about it).

All of which leads me to ponder the issue, as is my wont, of security. On some social networking sites, people may choose to spend their time completing short "fun" questionnaires (it takes all sorts) to find out what country they should live in or which religion best suits them. They can complete top five lists of their first 5 cars, or their 5 favourite sports teams, or their 5 favourite breakfast cereals. It’s not something I’d choose to send my free time doing, but whatever floats your boat.

One social networking ‘game’ that has done the rounds generates your 'porn name' based on key information supplied by you. Using details like your first pet's name, your mother's maiden name, and the street you grew up on, it generates a ‘joke’ name that you could use if you chose to pursue a career in that industry. Many of the details used by the game are also key pieces of information that are relied on by a number of information security systems.

Many web sites and applications ask users to create security questions to verify their identities in the event that they can't remember their password. Those questions are generally along the same lines as the information asked for by this game. Let’s be clear about this: I am emphatically NOT saying that if you play these games, you are by definition being ripped off. That would be as ridiculous an assertion as it is wrong. But by playing games like this, you may be more at risk from phishing attacks used by hackers who replicate these sorts of games to learn personal information about you.

To avoid phishing attacks, think about what information you share and just who has access to it when you are playing games and posting details on social networking sites. Some find it amusing to share and compare favourite rock bands or favourite superheroes, but attackers can also collect information like that from social networking sites. If you have ever used your all-time favourite band as a password, or ever answered the question 'what is your all-time favourite band' as a security question, then by sharing that information on a public forum such as a social networking site you open yourself up to potential compromise.

For those of you reading this who are old enough to remember the kids programme “Why Don’t You?”, I’d thoroughly recommend not filling in your top 5s on social networking sites, not updating everything you do from making a cup of tea to driving your car, and instead, to paraphrase and modernise the mantra from that estimable old TV show, switch off your PC and go out and do something less boring instead”. If you take my advice you may just save your personal information from being compromised.

Damian Hicklin

IT & Communications Manager

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ARM

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