Secure Blogging & Social Networking

A flurry of suspicious (unusual) activity early Friday prompted me to take pre-emptive measures aimed at avoiding any possible cyber disaster.

Shortly after 1am New York time, someone tried to gain access to my Facebook account...from Malaysia. I already know of at least one blogger (in Malaysia, by the way!) who likes to snoop around in other websites' code... as far as i can tell, they never got in, which is good. There are tools on the internet for Facebook Hacking, etc. which have an 80% success rate.

(1) I backed up my blog ::: on blogger-blog*spot, this process is a snap. Just follow the directions given (go to "Settings" then "Blog Tools" and you'll see that you can download your blog for archiving or for exporting to another service platform. The data is readable even on an older PC with an older (I'm talkin' win98 or winME) Operating System

(2) I backed up my facebook account - and kicked fb security up a notch, thank's to a tip I coincidentally happened upon during a visit to Justin's blog.
I want to make one thing clear - Specifically, when you click on "Account" you will next click on "Account Settings" NOT "Privacy Settings"If you scroll a little bit below what's displayed on the image above, you will find an option to download your facebook!

"This tool lets you download a copy of your information, including your photos and videos, posts on your Wall, all of your messages, your friend list and other content you have shared on your profile. Within this zip file you will have access to your data in a simple, browseable manner." ~ facebook

On that same page you will find security notifications. Anytime anyone tries to "break in" to a facebook account, it generates a warning that appears on-screen within that account, including the time and location of the attempt, as well as identifying the browser and operating system.

I got several "warning bells" on different levels early Friday morning, including several instances of unusual activity on my google, blogger and social networking accounts. These included unsuccessful attempts to take down my blog. I have security measures in place that are monitoring not only my networks but other instances of goings-on throughout the www. "Don't ignore anything." ~ Osama bin Laden




Tags: cyber-attack, facebook, facebook security, hacking facebook



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