Cyber criminal activity is growing and social networking sites are leading the pack in helping spread this activity. No, not intentionally but by virtue of the fact that social networking sites allow ease of sharing content, malware is easy to pass around.

According to a new report released by Blue Coat, a cyber security firm, cyber criminal activity is spreading so rapidly that security solutions providers are unable to keep up and continue to play catch-up.

Blue Coat reported that online storage and software downloading sites were two of the most common sites where malware was hidden. However what was most concerning in Blue Coat's report was that since social networking sites accounted for 25% of top internet activity, that's where most of the cyber attacks are happening. When networking on popular networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, opening links that contain malware is the leading cause for the spread of malware.

We've seen such attacks on Twitter where a user gets a tweet asking him or her to change their password and the minute they do so, their account is hacked into.

Some simple, common sense steps will help you from falling victim to malware and cyber criminal activity:

• Change your passwords on a regular frequency
• Make your passwords complicated enough so they cannot be guessed. Trust me, "password" is NOT a good password.
• Use tools like Tweetdeck for Twitter where you can "preview" links before opening them.
• Do NOT click on links sent to you via Direct Message (DM) on Twitter from someone you know
• On Facebook, use caution when accepting friend requests from people even if they are connected to others in your network
• Think before you post ANYTHING, and I mean anything. Sharing vacation plans online, is a strong no-no.
• Use caution when providing your information on new sites, you can't know how secure or not secure they may be.

Social networking requires MORE not less caution than before. Before, all we had to worry about was spam in our emails. Now, it's real-time information that's out there for anyone and everyone to see. Prevention is better than cure when networking online; so prevent the "bare-all" behavior and you'll be fine.

Ok, so better late than never right? I'm talking about the Social Media policy finally unveiled by the Department of Defense on Feb 26, 2010. And perhaps keeping the new way of communication in mind, Price Floyd, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, broke the news of the policy announcement on his Twitter feed.

So it appears that the military will allow it's troops to access popular social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter from their "non-classified computer network" also known as NPRNET (for Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network.)

This is huge people! Think about it, we're talking about the unbending, conservative military. Troops who wish to stay in touch with family and friends will now be able to do so and they'll also be able to share information with others who may be interested in what's happening with our military personnel stationed in remote locations.

The policy includes provisions to balance access with the necessary security measures to protect against malicious cyber and virus attacks. And naturally the policy also includes provisions to restrict access to pornography, gambling and hate-crime related sites.

As with all military policies, local commanders have the discretion to shut down the access to social networking sites. If a commander is uncomfortable with social networks, the troops will more than likely not be able to access the sites either which may cause unhappiness among the troops.
 

Engadget's blog is now allowing comments again, only two days after Editor-in-chief, Joshua Topolsky, announced that things had gotten out of hand and they were going to stop commenting until things settled down.
 
Well, it appears that things have settled down fairly quickly. Or rather Engadget has found a solution to their problem of getting a lot of "ugly, threatening, and spam" comments.

Topolsky announced on Thursday (Feb 4th) that they have made changes to keep "comments clean and comfortable for everyone who wants to join in the discussion — not just the loudest of the bunch."

Basically, readers of Engadget will now have the option of switching off the comments functionality and Engadget has deployed tools to allow their editors to moderate the comments more "effectively and efficienty".

They've also outlined a lot of ground rules for users. They want comments to be "reasonably polite" and lighthearted where possible. Of course anyone taking personal potshots at others including their editors will not be allowed and that they would delete any comments that were racist, sexist, or obscene.

Hmmm…but even if they allowed "unfiltered" comments, shouldn't Engadget have been doing some of that already? They could have implemented some automated monitoring to delete racial or obscene comments even if they didn't have a team of people monitoring comments.

But anyway, a blog is again a blog on Engadget. So have it and go comment on their site. Be sure to be "lighthearted" too when commenting on their site or Joshua Topolsky may get mad…..

What's blogging without comments? A blog means two-way dialog; one person posts, several comment, right?
 
Well, Engadget, a technology blog has stopped allowing comments on their blog because they felt that the tone of the comments had "really gotten out of hand."

Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky said in an announcement that "We know you like to have your fun, voice your opinions, and argue over your favorite gear, but over the past few days the tone in comments has really gotten out of hand,…."
 
Topolsky went on to say that what is supposed to a fun environment for their users and editors had become mean, ugly, and in some situations, threatening which was "just not acceptable".
 
And it ended with something to the effect of "everyone cool down" and that Engadget will allow comments on their blog again when they feel that things have settled down some.
 
Websites which allow unfiltered comments from users is a very common problem faced by many sites including most of the newspaper and television blog sites.
 
This "unfiltered" commentary is a growing concern for most of us who like to play in the online networks. Should all comments be monitored? Should websites which serve as an informational source be setting up a whole "comment management" team?

More to come……….