Trouble with Facebook and PDF

     I'm reading more and more on the net about examples of people's computers being hijacked used for malicious purposes, and the methods are getting more and more subtle.  And they are affecting more and more important groups.
     These virus attacks and computer hijackings are no longer matters of simple theft or infantile pranks.  They are beginning to affect world governments and are being executed by gangs of criminals.  All the real world bullying of the mobs and crime syndicates seem to have moved to the internet.
     The most common method we're seeing now is infection from seemingly safe sources.  Things like PDF files with malicious executables stored inside, that may or may not even need your approval to run.  Or even things as benign as Microsoft Office documents.  All of these things can contain scripts written in programming languages powerful enough to open back doors into your computer.  So, once again, if you don't trust where it came from, DON'T OPEN IT!  Is your personal information and identity important?
     And, as I've said before on this blog, Social Networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are just gathering points for malicious activity.  But what's even worse now is that whole corporations are setting up systems where they can simply click a program and sign in, and they can have access to your entire web-life.  Being marketed as a means for your employer to keep you from breaching laws about selling sensitive inside information, new programs like Social Sentry, from Teneros, are being developed so that your employer has immediate and real-time updates to your actions and statements on the web.
     It is becoming increasingly clear that using these simple solutions for personal use is becoming less and less personal, and more and more public.  If you don't want the whole world to read it, then don't post it.  I've been hearing all over the news the past couple of days about this boy that is suing his mother for slander because of things she posted on his Facebook account in response to things he had posted.  No matter which side you take on this argument, the kid should not have posted things if he didn't want everyone to find out.
     So, as I've said before, be careful, and keep as much off the web as you can.  These are dangerous times, and not enough awareness is causing so many people to get into trouble.

Outreach of the web

     Today there will not be a product pick due to time constraints.  That out of the way, today I'm shocked by the far reaching affect the web has on humanity, in both good ways and bad.  I'm surprised by the level of information freely available here on the internet.  I just logged into my Google Ananlytics account, and found out that people from as far away as Kanab, Utah have viewed this site. (Admittedly, I do know who this was, but I did not expect it, so thank you to them.)  Also, people from Orting, Seattle, and Puyallup Washington have all viewed this blog.  This kind of information in the hands of a small business give it real power, and greatly improve it's ability to connect with its customer base and viewership.  And this is why we love the web.
     But I'm also shocked, and dismayed, by the level of education that is centered around all this information.  That level is almost zero.  So many people out in the world, using the internet, are constantly placing their whole lives on display, for anyone to see.  A great example I have is one that worked out well, but shows a possibility for disaster.  I once did some work for a co-work on some video cassettes she wanted converted to DVD.  I completed the work, and went to contact her.  By privacy policy, our mutual employer could not even give her phone number to me, as a safety precaution.  This is wonderful, because it means weirdos can't just call your work and find out your number.  But all I had to do to actually get her number was to go onto a site like www.YellowPages.com and enter a few small bits of personal information about her that I knew from working with her, and I was not only able to get her phone number, but her address as well.  This kind of power is scary.  And worse, at times, we are completely unable to keep it from happening.  So please, use the web responsibly, it can be dangerous.
     On this note, I'm setting up a section of the future Digital Fruit website that will be devoted to helping customers and consumers in general to educate and fight back against people misusing the information placed out on the web.  We will be posting a list of known fraudulent companies, telemarketing phone numbers, and product scams that we have found out on the net.  We will also be posting articles about how to keep yourself safe, and also linking to content on the subject of information safety for you to do further research yourself.  As I have always believed, information is the best defense.