Speaking of Online Social Networking—A WARNING

Just as I had two consecutive posts related to social networking comes a third one. But don’t worry, this one will be quick.

Yahoo! News just posted a wake-up call to all online social networking addicts (special mention to Facebook and MySpace account owners). Posting private data about yourself at your social networking site can make you an easy target for hackers.

Hackers often use widgets as their bait. From what I understand, widgets are special third-party applications one can freely add to one’s site. (If you will check the left vertical panel of my blog page you will see several examples of widgets like: Shoutbox, Recent Visitors/Viewers boxes, the orange clock, my “tools for the workshop”—a widget featuring a word for the day, and, of course, my favorite Feedjit. But I maybe vague. You can visit wikipedia or click here to know more about web widgets.)

Adding widgets is something you do at your own risk so it will be wise to ALWAYS BE CAREFUL. Never divulge your passwords or other private information especially to suspicious sites.

To read the whole Yahoo! News article, “Online social networking sites are hacker playgrounds,” click here.