The video is a Fox 25 news segment that warns viewers about the growing problem of hackers hijacking social networking accounts such as Twitter and Facebook to post impostor messages, steal identities, and damage reputations. It cites high‑profile victims—from President‑elect Barack Obama to Britney Spears—to illustrate that anyone can be targeted. The segment explains how attackers gain access through password guessing, phishing scams, and large‑scale site breaches, and emphasizes that personal details shared online (pets, favorite movies, etc.) can be used by thieves to verify identities. Security experts Robert Siciliano, Tom Osherwitz (ID Analytics), and Michael Krigsman (AssureNet) advise users to treat social media accounts like secure accounts: set profiles to private, use strong, unique passwords that are changed regularly, avoid reusing passwords across sites, limit the amount of personal information posted, and stay vigilant for suspicious activity. The overall message is that while no system is 100 % secure, proactive steps can reduce the risk of identity theft and reputational harm.
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Well, it's not your buddy playing a joke on you.
Coming up tonight, that random, silly, sometimes even malicious tweet or Facebook status you don't remember posting? Well, that could be a hacker. The experts call it an emerging problem with social networking. Hackers accessing your Twitter, your Facebook accounts to send out impostor tweets or worse, steal your identity.
What can you do?
Fox 25's Sharmin Siketty shows you how to protect yourself.
Twitter pages hijacked by hackers.
From then President-elect From Barack Obama to Britney Spears, it can happen to just about anyone. Imposters sending out fake tweets while followers hang on to every last word.
It's very serious, sure. I mean, just think about the damage to your reputation.
Twitter and Facebook, both sites exploding because of their popularity. Between those tweets and constant updates, you're opening up a whole new opportunity for thieves and hackers. Social networking is all about sharing, but it's just how much information you choose to share that could make you a target for hackers.
Most people have been online— Facebook, Twitter— for less than a couple years, and most people do not realize the risks associated with putting all of your personal information online.
Internet security experts like Robert Siciliano say social networking sites are like stepping stones for identity thieves.
Most information that you post on social media won't get you into trouble. However, it can depending on what people might be looking for about you.
So you lock your profile and you set those settings to private. Sharing a little update about who you are or what you're doing may seem harmless enough, but think again. Tom Osherwitz is with ID Analytics, a company that helps consumers protect their online identity.
The name of their pet, their favorite movie, the books that they like— this information, while it's relevant to your friends, it's also quite relevant to identity thieves, and it's the same information that many companies use to verify you are who you say you are.
He says you need to treat Facebook and Twitter Twitter like secure accounts. After all, just recently hackers broke into Twitter and forced the site to shut down. Facebook users also affected when that site slowed down.
When it comes to computer security, there is no such thing as 100% secure. So whether it's the big website that gets hacked or your own social media site that gets hacked, it's, it's very possible today.
There are all kinds of ways to break into accounts. Hackers guess passwords or they hack into the site itself. Those phishing scams are becoming more sophisticated with emails customized directly to the user. Michael Krigsman is the CEO of AssureNet, a software and consulting company.
If they figure out your password for Twitter, well, maybe you use the same password for Facebook. Once that happens, it's a very small leap to learning much more about you, who your friends are, where you live, what kind of car you drive.
Experts say you need a good password, something with numbers or characters, and change it often. When it comes to where you live or what your birthday is, keep it vague or don't reveal it at all.
You really have to keep your street smarts on the internet. If something smells suspicious, something looks suspicious, it probably is.
