Avoid Potential Social Networking Nightmares | Voice of America - English
Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace provide a tempting source of personal information for computer hackers, posing threats to your privacy and security. ?The more usable these sites are, the less secure they become,? said Roger Thompson, head researcher for a leading computer software protection firm, AVG Technologies. The real danger for most people lies in the discloser of too much personal information.
?I'm very careful about what I information I provide to others,? said Thompson. ?But I can promise you that my kids are not careful.? So what are parents to do? Thompson suggests parent instill in their children a healthy dose of skepticism. If something sounds too good to be true it probably is. ?If you get something that says you are ?a winner,? you probably are not a winner. I have to tell my kids all the time, ?I'm sorry kids you are not a winner,? said Thompson. As a computer security researcher, Thompson admits the ?bad guys? are cleaver and work hard to keep one step ahead of security fixes. ?It?s actually hard to keep stuff safe,? he said. But there is technology available that will help. Thompson?s company has a product called ?Link Scanner? that scans websites and looks for potential problems. ?They can get it at AVG.com. It?s free. There?s no reason for people not to install it. That?ll help a lot.?