SOLUTIONS

There are now more than 200 million users on Facebook. Just think, if Facebook were a country it would be the fifth largest on Earth, after China, India, the U.S. and Indonesia! And the number of European Facebook subscribers has grown by 314% over the past year to nearly 100 million users, according to a recent report by ComScore.

Many companies and organizations including Ford, General Electric and Hewlett-Packard have recognized Facebook's value in promoting their products and services. And everyone from British actor Stephen Fry to President Barack Obama has a Facebook page. Unfortunately, many of the aspects that make Facebook and other social networking sites so popular also make them a prime hunting ground for identity thieves, online scam artists and criminals.

Here are a few basic measures you should consider to protect your Identity:


1) Utilize the site's privacy settings- Social networking sites offer different degrees of privacy settings. Select or limit the people who can view your profile information, and block your name and profile from being indexed in Internet search engines like Google. The best option is to set your profile to "private," so that only selected people will be able to view it. Or disclose only publically available information about your company or orgainzation.

2) Beware of divulging personal information on your user profile- Many users don't think twice about entering a wealth of personal information into their user profiles, everything from their address to their date of birth and home phone number. This is exactly the type of information that scammers love to get their hands on, so be sure you're not posting anything you wouldn't want a stranger to see.

3) Set your status sensibly - It might be tempting to let everyone know that you're on vacation for two weeks with no access to email but that also lets people know your house or apartment is probably empty, and provides an opening for identity thieves to misuse your information while you're offline. Similarly, beware of unusual status updates from friends, and always personally confirm any sort of request for money , your friend's account may just have been hacked! Besides, if you're using a Social Network for Business, do you really want to annoy your target audience while giving your competition an advantage?

4) Be very careful before you click on links embedded in e-mail notifications - One popular scammer technique involves sending an authentic-looking e-mail notification that encourages you to go to a link that asks for personal information like passwords and usernames. To protect yourself, always open your browser and input the link manually.

5) Avoid online surveys - While they may seem harmless, some chain surveys are designed to solicit information that is often used as security questions for banking and other institutions. Be wary of answering questions like "What was your first pet's name?" or "What is your mother's maiden name?", and ask yourself if this is really information you need or want to make publicly available. If in doubt, there's no rule against fibbing. My Mothers maiden name wasn't "Kennedy", but the form doesn't know that.

Companies who are using an informal social media vetting process incorporate the following steps into to help mitigate the risk:


6) Gave Candidates Sign a Disclosure Document - Make the informal process more formal allowing them an opportunity to disclosure information themselves as it relates to social media but do not ask for passwords or other login information.

7) Treat Informal Checks as Formal - Create a more formal process with a process document. This provides guidelines and an understanding of those who are completing the process the requirements and comes in handy during employment investigations or when the EEO comes calling.

8) Separate the Process - Limit the likelihood that hiring managers and those involved in the decision making process have access or the protected information unconsciously influences their decision, by separating it. This could include hiring an outside party or having someone in house responsible for conducting checks. Many large companies already separate the Internet sourcing process for the candidate interview and selection.

9) Training Your Teams - This may seem like a no brainer but training and constant communication are important when it comes to social media. Social media and its implications for employers isn't a one and done scenario. Your training and team communication shouldn't be either.

10) Cyber-bullying - Cyber-bullying can be described as an act of aggression toward someone, similar to traditional bullying, but done on-line. Cyber-bullying can range from spreading rumors about someone, on-line threats, harassment and negative comments, to posting and commenting on digital photos. The delivery method can vary from e-mails, instant messaging, web pages, blogs and chat rooms to social networking sites like Facebook.
Cyber-bullying can affect any age group but the most prevalent group is teenagers and this is starting to become a problem in schools. A recent article in the Adelaide Advertiser (Keller, C. & Hood, L., 2010) reported that "school counsellors are spending the beginning of each school week -cleaning up the carnage- of cyber bullying generated on Facebook and by text messages each weekend".

Research has shown that IT security is considerably underfunded within the healthcare industry, yet many new security regulations are now required. The benefits of establishing a social networking policy, along with providing key information to enhance employee education, can be used to establish a safe and effective use of social networking technologies within the healthcare organization, while ensuring the security of the hospital network as a whole.