Killing by Keyboards

Don't worry, no one actually dies in my blog post today. It's not really about killing with a keyboard. It's just a metaphor, but a good one. What I am talking about today is security and social networking. I chatted with a few of you on Twitter and Facebook (ironically enough) about this last Friday and thought this was a better venue to expand upon and continue that discussion.

So, who knows what OPSEC is? Any of you involved with the military will, but for everyone else, it simply means Operations Security. Yes, it's a military term, but one that applies to us all in a way when we put ourselves out there in today's social networking arenas. I attended a class on the base here last Friday about this very topic, and while it was directed more toward protecting Soldiers and the security of their missions, it also addressed personal safety, identity theft and other things that affect us all.

Who else struggles with the dilemma of how much is too much when it comes to public sharing? For those of us with an online business, this is an especially difficult area. I have found that a huge part of being successful as a handmade artist comes from letting others know that you are a real person, just like them. The more someone can relate to you, the better they will feel about supporting you. We're human, we want to be social, we want to connect. It's simply our nature. If a huge chunk of the population didn't find joy in sharing and reading about the trivial things we do all day, Twitter and Facebook would not exist. Instead they grow by leaps and bounds everyday.

I was always a little hesitant about sharing very personal information, particularly here on my blog. Not necessarily because of security concerns (though I do always think about that), but just because it felt awkward at first. During the time my father was sick, I broke through that wall. Anyone else who ever has will probably attest to the fact that it makes a huge difference in the connection you have with the people you share with. It's an amazing support system, for one, even if virtual. For those of us who work from home and do not get out much, virtual friends are our lives. We don't pick up the phone and chat, we chat online. Same thing, different venue.

If I don't visit Twitter and Facebook at least a few times a day, I feel more alone than when I do. Is that weird or is that normal in today's society?

So, you may be asking, what's you point? Let's get into the security of it. It doesn't take a class for someone to know that sharing personal information about yourself online can be dangerous to you and the people you associate with. We all know it, but how often do you actually think about it? In general, people tend to lean towards the 'It'll never happen to me' attitude about most things in life. Sit in any room, any where, with ten people and chances are at least one will have been a victim of identity theft. We make it so easy these days.

Think about what your Facebook profile alone tells someone. Chances are it tells your full name, married and maiden, your birthday, where you live, where you grew up, where you went to school, what year you graduated, who you are married to, maybe your kids names, maybe links to all your family members. No big deal, you say? It's all public knowledge, things people can find out other ways. Maybe, but you're putting it all in one easy place for them.

Someone looking to steal your identity has your name, they also have your birthday. Ok, but I didn't share the year, you think. Well, if you share where you went to high school and/or when you graduated, now they have it. If someone gets ahold of the last 4 digits of your social security number, they can get the first six based on where you are from, which you also told them, and when you were born, which they can figure out with the information you shared. That's just one way.

How about the Facebook facial recognition technology? If you tag someone in a photo, they ask if you'd like to automatically tag the same people later. What's the big deal with that? Facebook calls it convenient, I personally call it creepy. Facebook is essentially building a facial recognition database of several hundred million people, which will ultimately culminate in the ability to search for people just using a picture. Still not seeing how this could hurt you? Imagine a world in which someone can simply snap a photo of you of the street or in a crowd and learn everything about you on the internet.

How about geo-tagging? Do you know what that is? I honestly do not see why this was ever invented. Smartphones and some digital cameras now include tons of information with any photo they create, including a date and time and GPS coordinates of where a photo was taken. Snap a pic of your kids playing in the pool in your backyard, share it on Facebook or Twitter and now anyone who sees it can find out your exact location. Reading through a few posts on your page or checking out your linked spouses page will most likely let them know if you are home alone, what your schedule is, etc. Yes, bad people and criminals will always find a way to be criminals, but we are just making it so much easier for them.

Have you heard of Facebook pages being hacked? Do you know what it means? Basically what is happening is that a hacker is essentially copying an entire Facebook page and setting it up again, so you may have two or three pages out there and not even know it. This person will then friend request all your friends, who think it's you. They may wonder why you are sending a friend request again, but most won't even think about it since it looks like you. Might think it was just a glitch or you accidentally deleted them. The hacker now has access to all of your friends personal information, whether they have their pages locked down or not. Now if this happens to a friend of yours, some random hacker may now have access to all of your information, that you have locked down, without you even knowing. Privacy controls and security settings only keep honest people honest. Ultimately, the information is still out there.

Aside from these 'common' security issues, why am I so concerned about all of this? It's no secret that my husband is back in the Army, that we moved to North Carolina and that he's currently training. Some of you know more, a few of you know exactly what he is doing and the rest of you never will, hopefully. Not because I don't love you, but simply because I never want to be responsible for compromising the security of our nation. Extreme to think little old me and my little old blog could do that? Maybe, but it's true.

The majority of my friends, close friends, don't even know my husbands real, full name. Do an internet search for him and you will get absolutely nothing. Amazing, right? But ideal for his life and his job. If I share too much information, someone could easily learn the things we've been careful to keep secret. Not worth it. Will it be hard for me to keep it a secret when my husband is out training or deployed overseas and I'm alone and lonely, you bet your sweet ass. Will I though? You bet your sweet ass.

It's amazing the stupid things military wives post of their public Facebook pages. Entire units of troops scheduled to come home from a deployment have been grounded as they are about to step on a plane because one wife, in one city, posted the exact day, time and location that they were returning. And it's not just wives, the guys themselves do equally stupid things. Say a Soldier is overseas, maybe it's a semi-secretive mission or location, but they are allowed to have their personal cell phones. Sometimes even if they aren't allowed, they do anyways. The soldier takes a photo with his phone, texts it to his wife who the posts it on her Facebook page. In comes that geo-tagging I mentioned, Soldiers location now compromised, just like that.

Now with those things being said, chew on this. There is a Facebook page out there just for military wives. It's a nationwide thing, not just for one specific base, and is a venue for wives to ask questions, share experiences, help each other, etc. People post *a lot* of information on this page, thinking it's meant to be a helpful, useful site and that everyone involved is in the same situation. What the majority of people will never know is that the page is owned and administrated by a company is Southeast Asia. Why? Because it's easy, free intel. Can the average person find this out? Nope. How do I know and why do I believe it? Because very high up military security personnel told me so, and I believe them.

So, you're not a Soldier, you're not a military wife, all this still affects you. I'm not preaching to shut down your Facebook pages or stop tweeting. Lord knows I don't think I physically could (without the help of a 12 step program), but I'm just saying to stop and think before you click. You could not only be endangering yourself, but your family, your kids and all of your friends.

I'd love to hear what you all think about this topic, what your personal concerns are and if you are thinking differently about your social networking habits after reading this. Let's continue this discussion in the comments below!