Facebook Inc. have been transmitting YOUR identifying information...

Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found. Continue reading at The Wall Street Jounal

Teacher Schooled In Facebook Privacy Policy

Facebook's share-everything-with-everyone default settings appear to have blindsided ex-teacher June Talvitie-Siple, who lost her job after making unflattering comments about her students and their parents.

Talvitie-Siple, of Cohasset, Mass., allegedly called students "germ bags" on her Facebook page, where she also stated that she continually caught new illnesses from them. She additionally allegedly wrote that her students' parents are "arrogant" and "snobby." Some parents saw the posts and complained, following which Talvitie-Siple was asked to resign.


She reportedly says she believed her posts were viewable only by her contacts -- apparently because she didn't realize that Facebook recently changed most of its default privacy settings to share-everything-with-everyone. Of course, comments like Talvitie-Siple's could have backfired without Facebook. (Full Story)

7 Things to Stop Doing Now on Facebook

Using a Weak Password

Avoid simple names or words you can find in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. A password should have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers or symbols in the middle of a word, such as this variant on the word "houses": hO27usEs!

Leaving Your Full Birth Date in Your Profile

It's an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you've already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.

Overlooking Useful Privacy Controls

For almost everything in your Facebook profile, you can limit access to only your friends, friends of friends, or yourself. Restrict access to photos, birth date, religious views, and family information, among other things. You can give only certain people or groups access to items such as photos, or block particular people from seeing them. Consider leaving out contact info, such as phone number and address, since you probably don't want anyone to have access to that information anyway.

Posting Your Child's Name in a Caption

Don't use a child's name in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking on Remove Tag. If your child isn't on Facebook and someone includes his or her name in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.

Mentioning That You'll Be Away From Home

That's like putting a "no one's home" sign on your door. Wait until you get home to tell everyone how awesome your vacation was and be vague about the date of any trip.

Letting Search Engines Find You

To help prevent strangers from accessing your page, go to the Search section of Facebook's privacy controls and select Only Friends for Facebook search results. Be sure the box for public search results isn't checked.

Permitting Youngsters to Use Facebook Unsupervised

Facebook limits its members to ages 13 and over, but children younger than that do use it. If you have a young child or teenager on Facebook, the best way to provide oversight is to become one of their online friends. Use your e-mail address as the contact for their account so that you receive their notifications and monitor their activities. "What they think is nothing can actually be pretty serious," says Charles Pavelites, a supervisory special agent at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. For example, a child who posts the comment "Mom will be home soon, I need to do the dishes" every day at the same time is revealing too much about the parents' regular comings and goings. (See Full Story)

Should a teacher’s Facebook posts ruin her career?

A former high school teacher is suing a north Georgia school district, alleging she was forced to resign over photos and expletives on Facebook.

Ashley Payne contends that the Barrow County school district violated state labor law because she was never told she was entitled to a hearing. Her attorney, Richard Storrs, says the 24-year-old former Apalachee High School teacher was “not made aware of her rights” and should be granted the hearing.

After teaching at the school for two years, Payne resigned in August after her principal questioned her about her Facebook page, which included photos of her holding wine and beer and an expletive.

(Payne told the Athens Banner Herald it was the “B” word that landed her in hot water with her principal. She posted it in the context of saying she was going to an Atlanta restaurant that featured a game called Crazy “B” Bingo.  Here is a link to the bars that hold Crazy Bxxxx Bingo games.) According to the AJC.com

Breach-Proofing your organization brings many benefits...

Roanoke City Public Schools Surplus computers sold containing 2000 employees’ names and Social Security numbers...  

University of Louisville  A database with the names, social security numbers and other personal information of 708 dialysis patients was accessible via the Internet for more than a year, university officials announced Wednesday morning.

In order to prevent data breaches before they occur requires building a “Breach-Free Culture” within your organization.  Properly training employees across all areas of your business is a necessary component to breach-proofing your organization.

Another reason to incorporate training into your data breach prevention efforts is that, although cyber-criminals may get the headlines and media attention, the fact is that more than 88% of all breaches are caused by human error and process failures. Technology can't stop someone from making mistakes, however, training that changes behavior can!

Breach-Proofing your organization brings many benefits. We've all seen the statistics... Data breaches cost an average of $202 per record lost... 40% of consumers change their relationship with affected businesses... fines for non-compliance with the law can run into tens of thousands of dollars... lawsuits cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend and even millions of dollars to settle.

Creating a Breach-Proof Culture, where employees across all departments and areas share a heightened sensitivity, understanding and commitment to eliminating breaches can reduce your organizations risk.

University of Toledo, 200 reported incidents of Identity Theft...

At the University of Toledo, there have been 200 reported incidents of credit card and identity theft of students, faculty and staff in the past year, according to Marge Dell, head teller at UT’s Credit Union.

According to Dell, five of those incidents occurred on-campus.

“We had a counselor here that had their identity stolen by her secretary,” she said. “They actually took a mortgage out for their house for $80,000.”

Joseph Slater, professor of law instruction, became a victim of identity theft after someone obtained his social security number and home address in late 2004.

“I would get things in the mail from Circuit City saying, ‘thank you for opening up an account with us. You have reached your $600 limit. Please pay us,’” Slater said.

The man who stole Slater’s identity used his information to max out six credit card accounts with stores in Atlanta, Ga. and was not caught until the seventh account he tried to open... The Federal Trade Commission estimates 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.

At the University of Toledo, there have been 200 reported incidents of credit card and identity theft of students, faculty and staff in the past year, according to Marge Dell, head teller at UT’s Credit Union.

According to Dell, five of those incidents occurred on-campus.

“We had a counselor here that had their identity stolen by her secretary,” she said. “They actually took a mortgage out for their house for $80,000.”

Joseph Slater, professor of law instruction, became a victim of identity theft after someone obtained his social security number and home address in late 2004.

“I would get things in the mail from Circuit City saying, ‘thank you for opening up an account with us. You have reached your $600 limit. Please pay us,’” Slater said.

The man who stole Slater’s identity used his information to max out six credit card accounts with stores in Atlanta, Ga. and was not caught until the seventh account he tried to open. (See Full Story)

Copy Machines, a Security Risk?

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the good, old-fashioned copy machine. But, as Armen Keteyian reports, advanced technology
opened a dangerous hole in data security...