How Safe You Are With Paradox of Social Networking?
By SOVI 
Online networking is a great phenomenon to find and stay in touch with your buddies and kin, but how safe is it really?
World is shrinking day by day. Today we are all easily connected across cities, states and countries not merely by transportation channels but most importantly by internet. Along with emails, video conferences and instant messengers came along social networking sites like facebook, twitter which allow you to connect with your friends across any corner of the world. Moreover you can search your buddies and do chit chats with them at any time. You can provide information about yourself on social sites that may be visible to everyone who’s a member of the site. Individuals of similar interests can get to know each other and even form online groups.
Paradox of social networking
A common name to social networking is facebook, twitter, Orkut, Myspace, which today have a uncounted list of members on each. But still these sites face similar threats, which remain unsolved till date.
Fake Profiles
Anyone on internet can create an account on such social networking sites. Infact one can have more than a single account. With such a huge traffic on such sites it’s hard to delete accounts if they are not in use anymore. Many user create fake accounts disguising someone else. These accounts are used to send spam content or fun messages to flood accounts of another. A victim user face a lot more trouble in handling such activities. In 2006 Orkut faces invisible profiles which were created with HTML codes. Moreover there is much software like Floodtudo which could easily send a spam wave on any account.
Antagonist Groups
Freedom to express views is what social networking is but this creates a lot trouble. Users from similar interest create groups and focus on religion and racism. As a result of which Indian court has issued some notices to Google on anti-religion, anti-national, and anti-ethnic groups.
Privacy & Security
Social network was a step towards connecting people, but more or less a step toward spreading viruses and worms. These worms are malicious codes that are designed for stealing one’s confidential information. In October 2005, MySpace witnessed the spread of the Samy worm. This worm created a friend request and displayed the message “But most of all, Samy is my hero”. In just a few hours millions of friend requests were automatically sent to the creator of the worm. The creator was sentenced to 3 years of probation, on pleading guilty in the court. Another evident example is that of the MW.Orc worm that spread across Orkut since June 2006. This worm steals an individual’s information like username, password and bank details. Due to the increasing risks involved in social networking many sites created locking method like friend lock.
To summarize, social networking is a great avenue to connect people in different parts of the world. The prevailing security issues in these situations are also a big concern. Hence, it is critical that you take onto account all these factors and carry on the mingling!!!
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This is a great article. It raises yet another reason why I’ve been considering leaving Facebook and only keeping my fan page. Spam and viruses are everywhere, and at least once a week I see a friend whose account gets compromised
Delena