Risks of social networks 

 

Social networking sites allow someone to post information that thousands of other users can read. But that's not at all. In this Q&A, information security threats expert Ed Skoudis reveals how sites like Myspace and Youtube let the bad guys post something more dangerous: malware.

• Fraud:In law, fraud is deliberate deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud itself can be a civil wrong (i.e., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud and/or recover monetary compensation), a criminal wrong (i.e., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities) or it may cause no loss of money, property or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong.^[1] The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, such as obtaining a driver's license orqualifying for a mortgage by way of false statements.
• Identify Thief:The short answer is that identity theft is a crime. Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. These Web pages are intended to explain why you need to take precautions to protect yourself from identity theft. Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, your personal data ­ especially your Social Security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data ­ can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense. 
• Loss of Privacy:Increasingly, governments, corporations, and other entities are collecting information about you that you willingly or unknowingly give out online. Even seemingly innocuous apps (like games or Facebook "quizzes") may now be collecting a wealth of data about you: Your name, your age, your gender, your physical address, email address, phone number, the particular device from which you access the Internet, your religious and political affiliation, relationship status, what you look like, where you are, who your friends and family members are, as well as your favorite foods, books, movies, hobbies, Web sites, restaurants, stores, clothes, vacation destinations, your travel history, your past experiences, etc.
• Acces of unsuitable content:What you think is inappropriate material for your child will probably differ from your child’s view or that of other parents. It will also depend on your child’s age and maturity level. Inappropriate content includes information or images that upset your child, material that’s directed at adults, inaccurate information or information that might lead or tempt your child into unlawful or dangerous behaviour. This could be:
  • pornographic material
  • content containing swearing
  • sites that encourage vandalism, crime, terrorism, racism, eating disorders, even suicide
  • pictures, videos or games which show images of violence or cruelty to other people or animals
  • gambling sites
  • unmoderatedchatrooms – where there’s no one supervising the conversation and barring unsuitable comments.
• Cyber Buulling:Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices and equipment such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages, chat, and websites.
  Examples of cyberbullying include mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles.

Habits of effective network security

Effective network security programs require more than just one layer of protection – if one solution fails, you still have others guarding your company and its data from all types of network attacks.

Proprietary Software Vs Free Software

• Free to Try Before You Buy:Community open source is completely free to anyone to download, including source code, for evaluation. Even COSS vendors usually have a free version of their software packages, which includes source code. In fact, much open source software, especially OSs, are available as “live” media, which means you need not actually install the software but instead run it directly from a DVD or USB flash drive.
• Free Support:Whether an open source package is being evaluated or integrated commercially, it has the same global community of users and developers available for asking questions and advice. Support includes detailed documentation, forums, wikis, newsgroups, email lists and live chat. None of this costs anything except time.
• Reduced Competitive Advantage:If an enterprise is also a software vendor, then building products on open source code affects the revenue model for the enterprise’s software depending on the open source licensing agreement. Also, an organization’s core competency could be partially diluted if the value of the proprietary code built on top of the open source platform is not enough to offset the lowered barrier to entry of competitors that could build a similar product on top of the same open source code.
• Usability:Open source projects, even COSS, are complex packages of software that are not as closely aimed at markets of unskilled end users as is much proprietary software. Unskilled users will never look at the source code let alone compile it. This aspect explains why open source Apache Web Server is the leading deployment in data centers, but desktop Linux has barely penetrated the PC market where alternate, easy-to-use products already exist that do not have to compete based on high performance metrics.

Types of Software License

• Free Software GNU License: You are able to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software without hindrance. The easiest way to describe this is ‘Free’ as in liberty, so you are able to adapt them to your needs, they are also ‘Free’ as in price. The GNU Organisation has more in depth information.
  
• Open Source: Open source means that you can use a font, program, or browser for free of charge generally without any conditions. Open Source as its name suggests means that its code is available in a free manner so others may distribute it under the condition that further developments and applications are put under the same licence GNU General Public License (GPL), is the most common license.
•  Freeware: is commonly used for commercial products that are proprietary software. A company is allowing people to use their product without payment but you cannot adapt and modify the program as a company owns it. Free as in Free price, not Freedom to modify it.