Facebook Attacks

Facebook has become one of, if not, the most popular social networking site's on the Internet. Facebook has become so unique and popular because it only requires a regular email account to sign up, it used to be only for college students, but it has expanded to include anyone with a valid email address. Now people can search for people that they grew up with, lost touch over the years with, or just someone that they met at the bar last night. Facebook allows individuals to post private and public information about themselves including: the individuals name, address, place of business, schools attended, hobbies, interests, and basically any information that the individual wants to disclose about themselves. People can post photos and videos as well, so their is a lot of information available at just the click of the mouse.
Facebook has recently become a target of malicious hacks to obtain user login names and passwords. Studies have shown that about one third of web users use the same password for all websites or most websites that require a password. Honestly, I found this to be very true because I do the same exact thing. I have about five or six websites that I use that require a password to access them and I usually have the same password or maybe one different one, including my email password. Hackers are posting links on random individuals facebook pages linking them to phishing sites requiring the user to retype their login name and password so that the hack can obtain their information. Although Facebook credentials are not much, hackers can use these logins and passwords to attempt to access people's emails, ebay and paypal accounts, Amazon and gmail accounts, or anything that requires a login and password. This is where the issue become a huge problem and could be detrimental. This has become an increasingly dangerous issue, especially to those users serving in areas of combat and as well as business users who are on Facebook at work. Hackers can use this information to hack into work emails and gain confidential information. This is why many corporations and businesses advise employees and even make it company policy to block certain websites. Computer security advisers recommend that users use a different password for each account and usually non-dictionary words mixed with numbers as well to decrease potential hacks. Users should also change their password once a month, many companies already have policies such as this one in effect to prevent network security breaches. Facebook users need to constantly be aware of the possible threats they may face and the damage that could be done with a simple login name and password.