Caution urged on networking sites

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Students who spend countless hours on Facebook staying in touch with friends and keeping up with the latest applications might need to be more cautious in what they click, according to a statement released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The number of social networking account hijacks reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center — a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center — has increased, approaching about 3,200 cases in the three years since 2006, the statement, which was released earlier this month, said.

Sending a spam e-mail can allow a hijacker access to a victim’s passwords, including their passwords for social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. The hijacker then can send messages from the victim’s account to their friends claiming distress, the statement said.

Facebook friends who click on the message are sent to fake sites that request personal information, according to the statement.

Although site administrators work to fight identity theft and incidents typically are reported soon after their occurrence, identity theft is a possibility, said Cliff Lampe, a social networking researcher and telecommunication, information studies and media professor.

“I have no nightmare examples of this happening — Facebook has a strong interest in making sure it doesn’t happen,” he said. “But it’s possible.”

And students also should be cautious when adding Facebook applications, he said.

Lampe said Facebook users should be aware that in allowing an application to have account access, they let the application developer see all the information on their profile.

Although a person might not think the information on their profile is personal, it could provide the pieces for identity theft, he said.

“If you put together the right pieces of address, hometown, mother’s name, a clever identity thief can use that information in nefarious ways,” Lampe said, citing thieves could obtain access to a user’s bank account as an example.

But Lampe said such cases are rare and most applications, such as Mafia Wars and Farmville, come from known developers.

Students should not be paranoid about using applications, but they should be cautious, he said.

Biochemistry sophomore Ayesha Yalamarthy said she would like to see stronger security on Facebook to prevent application developers from accessing more personal information.

“They shouldn’t even access our page,” she said. “If it’s for certain things, like your name, that’s fine. But what your mom’s name is, your birth date or where you’re from shouldn’t be accessed. They should have a restricted amount of information.”

The MSU police department has not seen an increase in reports of cybertheft, MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.

But students should remember to protect personal information in the virtual world just as they would in the real world, she said.

“Keep information in a safe place,” McGlothian-Taylor said. “Not inside a wallet or on a computer. Secure your personal information because you never know who’s watching.”

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