Safe and Secure

I'm as concerned as anyone about PC security and I do run anti-malware software. But I'm astonished by the results of a survey conducted by Kelton Research and commissioned by BitDefender that shows that "close to half (49 percent) of Americans with a personal computer would be more likely to safeguard themselves from a potential virus on their PC than a human virus, such as the H1N1 flu."

The survey further found that "only 36 percent are confident they would know the correct course of action if their computer was infected by a virus."… Read more

commentary The headline of the press pitch I received a few days ago read "McAfee to release shocking findings of teen's online behavior," but the actual data from the study, "Secret Life of Teens," are far from shocking.

McAfee's study (PDF) is actually a reassuring portrait of how most young people are exercising reasonable caution in their use of technology. The study, conducted by Harris Interactive, included interviews with almost 1,400 10- to 17-year-olds.

The survey reported that "almost half of youth (46 percent) admit to having given out their personal information … Read more

Tiny Planets is a new online destination for children built around the space exploration theme of the eponymous animated TV series.

The Web site, aimed at children ages 6 to 12, features games, videos, social networking, a virtual world, and the ability to purchase virtual goods with real money or points earned from participation.

To prevent cyberbullying and other dangers, kids must select from prewritten phrases to interact. The site doesn't allow free-form text entry. To avoid potentially inappropriate screen names, children select theirs from options provided at sign-up. The site does not collect any personal information from children, … Read more

Mozilla's Aza Raskin is warning about a new type of phishing attack called tabnabbing.

Unlike traditional phishing attacks which trick people into clicking on links that take them to bogus sites that look legitimate, tabnabbing doesn't require a user to click on a link. But it too can trick people into disclosing their usernames and passwords.

While you're visiting a Web page infected with malicious tabnabbing code, a tab in the background morphs into what appears to be a legitimate site like Gmail or a banking site. To the user it looks quite familiar and since it'… Read more

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckberberg has had a tough few weeks.

At a Facebook developer's conference on April 21, he announced some changes to Facebook's privacy policy, including the "Instant Personalization" program that "connects" Facebook members' information on some third-party sites, including Yelp and Pandora. He also announced that, going forward, application developers would be able to hang on to user information indefinitely, rather than having to purge the information from their servers daily. The developers in the audience cheered these announcements, but some of Facebook's critics jeered them, touching off a backlash that … Read more

Thanks to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are off-limits to kids under 13. That's not to say that preteens aren't using these sites--many are--but they have to lie about their age to sign up. 

Aside from being "against the rules," there are some real problems with younger kids using sites designed for teens and adults. For one thing, signing up requires lying, which is bad in itself. But, as many adults are finding out, knowing how to protect one's privacy on a site like Facebook can … Read more

After four years as chief security officer at MySpace, Hemanshu Nigam is leaving his full-time job to start a new firm that advises companies on how to handle safety, security, and privacy. Nigam, who will continue to advise MySpace and its parent company News Corp., hopes to bring his expertise to start-ups, existing Internet companies, and even governments seeking to better understand how to avoid Internet-related problems.

A former sex-crimes prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department, Nigam also served as director of consumer security outreach at Microsoft and was as an enforcement officer at the Motion Picture Association of … Read more

LONDON--Thanks to the volcanic ash pouring out of Iceland, I had some extra time in London last week, giving me an opportunity to try my hand at shuttle diplomacy between Facebook and a British police agency called the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center, or CEOP.

I came to London en route to a tech conference in Spain that was canceled due to the air travel issues and also to give a talk at a Family Online Safety Institute conference in Bahrain that starts Tuesday.

As I wrote recently, CEOP is pressuring Facebook to add a reporting button (some call … Read more

commentary Facebook on Tuesday launched a so-called Safety Center as a worldwide resource for parents, teens, law enforcement, educators, and the general public, but it's taking safety a step further in the U.K.

In addition to the global safety page, Facebook has developed more resources specifically for members in the United Kingdom, where it has been under pressure from Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to include a clearly visible "panic button" on every page. Facebook has agreed to redesign its report abuse system for U.K. members but hasn't agreed to … Read more