Modern Technology - Is Facebook safe from hackers - Essay Example

? Is Facebook safe from hackers? Introduction The recent advancements in modern technology and the emergence of social networking sites have changed the way the world keeps connected. Today most of the people have account in social networks like Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace. Facebook, the most popular social networking website, was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and it has more than one billion active users as of September 2012. Despite the growing popularity of Facebook, this social network’ reliability is being questioned because Facebook is extremely vulnerable to computer hacking and data loss. This paper will particularly discuss modern technology and evaluate whether Facebook is safe from hackers. Is Facebook safe from hackers? The surprising revelation is that more than three quarters of the teens and almost the same percentage of middle aged persons in the nation presently use social media; and in addition, there is the stunning revelation that “according to 42% of the population, internet is the most essential thing when the other options available are television, radio, and newspaper” (Sachoff para 1). The last few decades witnessed tremendous changes in technology, specifically information technology, and this explosive technological growth entirely changed the way people across the globe communicate with each other. Some of the major modern technological advancements include iPhone, tablets, smartphones, and e-book readers. Although the modern technology improved people’s living standards and assists them to save time and money, it has some major disadvantages too. It is clear that social networking websites constitute the world’s largest database and therefore computer hackers specifically aim at popular networks like Facebook in order to obtain unauthorized access to users’ personal data. While analyzing Facebook’s security features, it seems that this website is extremely vulnerable to unauthorized user access. For instance, Facebook allows an external party to change user password if he/she has three active Facebook IDs in the victim’s friend list. Taking unfair advantages of this password recovery feature, a hacker can gain access to a person’s account by creating and maintaining three active fake profiles. In addition, Facebook is a hot spot of virus attacks and other malware threats. Nowadays, malwares appear in Facebook in the form of advertisement links or porn videos. If an individual clicks on those links or videos, they will automatically be reposted or shared on his friends’ Facebook walls and this error leads to misunderstanding and conflicts. The weak default security settings of this website make things worse. To illustrate, any person can post a malicious link or video on the wall of a Facebook user who follows default security settings. According to Consumer Reports survey 2011, nearly 7.5 million children under the age of 13 and 5 million under the age of 10 maintain a Facebook account and violate this social website’s terms of service. Evidently, these children are not adequately informed of various hacking threats like posting of malicious links and videos and hence they are extremely prone to Facebook hacking. Today, Facebook has become a common platform for people around the globe to express their opinions or to share their views. Recently, many public movements have been set up using Facebook as a common place to meet. According to a report by Brodzinsky, hundreds of thousands of Columbians are planning to organize a rally against the nation’s most powerful rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC). They use Facebook to meet together and make future plans. However, some security threats limit the scope of Facebook. Phishing is a major threat that challenges the security of Facebook accounts. According to Straub et al, phishing can be defined as the “act of tricking someone into giving… confidential information or tricking them into doing something that they normally would not do or should not do” (222). More clearly, through the act of phishing, a hacker tries to create a fake Facebook home page and tricks the victim to enter his e-mail address and password on the fake columns provided. Consequently, these confidential user data are passed on to the hacker’s computer and he/she obtains unauthorized access to the victim’s account. According to Cavelty, growing incidence of the online activity called ‘hacktivism’ appears to be a threat to Facebook security. The term hacktivism refers to the integration of hacking and activism, representing the application of hacking techniques for political-activist reasons, in an attempt to attack the target’s website and hence to disrupt the victim’s normal operations (77). Many groups and organizations follow ‘hacktivism’ in order to cause damages to target’s Facebook profiles and pages. Today, those groups can obtain support from professional hackers, who are capable of intruding into even highly secured websites. Recently there was a threat from a group of hackers, who were supposed to be the members of the hacktivist group Anonymous, that they would destroy Facebook (Holden). Although Facebook has successfully survived this threat, it indicates the fact that Facebook is main target for professional hacker groups. If the Facebook team does not take serious measures to address this growing hacking threat, the world’s most popular social networking website may be damaged by hackers. Conclusion Social networking sites have grown as one of the most influential media of all time in the last few years. Internet connectivity has made its marks in every remote corner of the world, and thereby, a huge proportion of the world’s population is being connected through the virtual world. Facebook is highly vulnerable to cyber threat in terms of data theft and hacking. Though most of these sites require that one should be at least 14 years of age to get an account, it is possible for children to adjust their age for this great purpose. Admittedly, no one can claim that all those guys one meets in such social networks are there to tell truth or to promote virtue. Evidently, a considerable proportion is there only to trap the innocent, because at present, social networks are a safe haven for those who want to masquerade. In total, Facebook is not at all free from hackers. Works Cited Consumer Reports survey. “Five million Facebook users are 10 or younger”, May 10, 2011. Web 17 June 2013 Holden.. “anonymous warns facebook and other hacker threats”. Analysis intelligence. Web 17 June 2013 Myriam, Dunn. Cyber-Security and Threat Politics: US Efforts to Secure the Information Age. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print. Straub, Detmar W et al. Information Security: Policy, Processes, and Practices. M.E. Sharpe, 2008. Print. Sibylla, Brodzinsky, "Facebook used to target Colombia's FARC with global rally". Christian Science Monitor. Boston, February 4, 2008. Web 17 June 2013 Sachoff, Mike. “Nearly Half of Americans use social media”.Web Pro News, April 8, 2010. web 17 June 2013 http://www.webpronews.com/nearly-half-of-americans-use-social-media-2010-04 Read More