Thursday, March 05, 2009

Facebook's Security Weakness

The thing about Facebook's security is it is based on people. Friends can become enemies and copy party pics out. Friends can think its funny and post your intimate poses. But above all, when you post those nudes, you better assume that since people are involved, they will violate your security.

Case in point at UMass-Dartmouth as a sys admin got sacked for using his privileges within the campus IT to get access to female coed's Facebook accounts, then copy out the photos he wanted.

Yes, he shouldn't be doing it; but I return to the first rule of social network security:

Digitial assets are extremely portable, and once posted, belong to the world.

I know he was very, very wrong. The victim contributed to the risk to herself by posting the photos to begin with. That's not some "the person asked for it" defense -- absolutely not. No one deserves to be publicly embarrassed on-line.

Back in the day, risque photos were kept in the back drawer. Today, they are out for the world to see.

Make no mistake, this guy was a creep, with a webcam and some attempted upskirt shots also found on the hard drive.

For a more chilling view, read the Wired Campus Blog's entry today at The Chroncle.

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