Facebook Information Can Be Used by Hackers

Most of the time when ever I do phone transaction (banking and other such alike) the call agent would ask a question to verify my identity and the most common question I encountered are "What is your date of birth?" and "What is your mothers maiden name?". Did you know that is information could be easily access by a hacker thru you facebook account? Thus resulting for the hacker to trick any agent over the phone and can post as you. From there the hacker could stole you identy and make phone transactions in your name. The hacker would just check your facebook profile to see your date of birth and from there the hack could also do an investigation to find out who is your mother and try to check her profile too to find out her maiden name. Everything would be easy for him unless raise your security settings.

Here what you need to do.
1.On the upper rigth corner click "Accout" Tab and choose "Privacy Setting" from the drop down menu.
2.Click "Custom" then "Customize Settings".
3. On Family you may choose to be seen by "Friends Only" If you know all you friend and you trust all the friend that you would accept but if not just change it to "Custom" and set it to "Only Me". In this case there will be no direct information from facebook that will be available to the hacker to trace who is your mother.
4.Do the same for your date of birth, I bet you'll choose only me unless you want everybody to know your date of birth.

These are just specific examples but the general rule it keep your personal information private.

Identifying Spam Mail

Spam mails are now getting smarter because they are improving their methods so that they can get away of the spam filters. Although we have spam filter to protect us there are still a few spam mails that get thru. Some of them are just annoying but there are dangerous ones too. The dangerous ones have virus, spywares and key loggers. If the spam mailers are getting smarter, we the targets should be smarter than them. Here are a few smart ways to stop it and avoid being victimized. (This is only for the spam mails that get through the spam filter I post later how to avoid getting spammed).

1.    It is from someone you don’t know. Unless you are expecting someone will send you an e-mail for the first time don’t open it.
2.    In case you have opened a spam mail it and it has something on it that says click here to unsubscribe. Better not to because you are only confirming that you are an active spam reader and they will target you more. The only exception is if the mail is not a spam. To stop receiving from this sender just block it from your mail or add a filter that it will be sent directly to the spam folder or the trash folder.
3.    Obvious spam mails that get thru sound they have a legitimate business with but don’t because they are just selling stuffs that you are not interested (Viagra, penis enlargement and etc…) If your mail program has an option to report a spam mail, use it to report the mail then delete it.
4.    Spam mail trying to outsmart the spam filter usually has funny characters on the Subject or intentionally miss-spelled words so they can get away from the spam filters watch out for this, report and delete them immediately.