Social Networking Sites - Security Concerns

Over the past few years social networking has become increasingly popular. Everyone is scrambling for the latest piece of technology and these new devices ensure that you can use social networks anytime you want. The topic of security has been an issue of the years with specific cases cropping up, however when the hype fades, people forget and continue to use and love these social sites.

With everyone loving social networking sites as much as they do, it`s hard for people to think about them having flaws. They provide a way to share photos, information with friends and share a laugh or two through thoughts of the day and instant messaging. When a family lives all over the world from each other or friends moves far apart, they give a way to communicate and share their lives with each other on a technical level.

The problem with sharing your life online is that it is subject to being looked at by people that you do not know. It may seem scary to think of someone else viewing your pictures or seeing your profile but it is even worse when you think about them accessing your password and getting into your files, or just seeing your files and using the info or pictures for their own good.

Security needs to be beefed up on social sites. Many social sites do not view security as a huge issue. They know that more important internet situations do not provide heavy duty security so they feel that social networking is important but not as important of the ones who are lacking it as well. There are SSL codes that can be in scripted to make privacy an addressed issue, but many internet sites refuse to use them.

A popular social network website had a hacker that broke into everyone`s account. He spread a virus around that got into everyone`s account and while he didn`t do any harm or damage he proved his point, that it can be done and it can hurt a lot of people.

A site that allows people to post journal entries had someone break into someone`s account. The hacker changed things around and deleted entries, they also hacked into friend`s accounts through the one account. Lots of information was leaked and people were hurt. It made the account holder upset but they just went on with changing their password and resuming their life.

Most social network websites started off small and a few turned into something massive. The idea really caught on because everyone likes the idea of being so connected and close to people through the internet...something many people use all day and every day. The problem is that all the little cute programs that people are so tempted to load on to their accounts may allow people access to all their information.

And while it seems many people don`t think about it too hard, it may do some harm. Whenever someone can see your private info without consent that is a security issue that should be a hot issue. Some networking sites have tried to make it seem that people have control over who sees certain information but there must be other ways such as loading applications that allow for security issues to happen regardless.

It is amazing to think that people do not really care that much about internet security, if they did then everyone wouldn`t be on social networking sites. It is also concerning to think that hackers are using the internet to target people and use them for their own advantages and scams.