Fred Abaroa

I got hit with all sorts phishing scams today on Facebook and twitter. Interestingly enough I was at a Lunch N Learn on security and social media while this was occurring. David Jacquet, CEO of Infosecurus, started off the session saying "Security is about people not about technology". He uses what is called "Social Engineering" to get past security. Social engineering is basically conning another human into giving you enough information to either figure out your password and sometimes he can even get the password itself. The point to all this is that social media, which invites people to be social, is a whole new threat to security. According to breach.com, "Social networking sites emerge as the most targeted vertical market with 19% of the incidents, a dramatic increase from prior years." One of the scams I got hit with today, along with thousands of others on twitter, said I was on a video. This made sense since I spoke at the Big Conference with all the social media maven like Chris Brogan. When I clicked on the link a twitter page came up telling me to sign in. This is where I got suspicious and stopped. Number 2 scam was DMs from people telling me they made $300 at...and it had a website. Well I knew right away that wasn't true. Third one came from facebook with a similar video message as the one before. Wow all this in just one day, I was starting to wonder if David arranged this. So the advice he gave. Be careful how much you reveal on your update about where you are, who is guarding the house, what you keep in your car, and on an on. Never have the same username password combination for anything. Apparently a lot of people use the same password for twitter or facebook as they do in their corporate account. Be aware that asking for advice on how to fix a problem could be answered by someone who just wants to get more information about your system to make it easier to hack.

Moral of the story...be aware how much information and what kind of information you are revealing out there. I'll be putting together more on this subject to be delivered in a speech soon. Meanwhile I am available to speak or train at your venue. Contact me using the methods below,

Fred Abaroa aka “CostaVidaFred”
The Marketing Imagineer

fred [@]costavidafred.com
Twitter: @CostaVidaFred

Blogs:
www.CostaVidaFred.com
Podcasts:
WordOnTheTweet.net
MakingMountainsOutOfMoleHills.com