Social Media Security

Audra's story about her friend and the music video of Jason Alexander pretending to be Brad Paisley online urged me to look into security for social media: Google supplied this article

10 Social Media Security Considerations

 The article begins by stating possible social media security issues include involve identity theft (obvious), brand hijacking, privacy issues (obvious), online reputation management (less obvious), and users' physical security.

The ten steps he suggests for a safe social media experience are:

1. Register your full name on sites such as http://knowem.com/ in order so you can know if anyone is using your name
2. Set up Google free alerts which notify the user every time your name is used.  This will notify you if someone posts about you or tries to sign up for anything using your name.   
3. Discuss social media with your kids. Since "scammers" could easily target young people on the internet the article suggests ensuring they are not posting anything to compromise family security and monitor what they are doing online.  
4. The next three, be discreet, maintain updated security, and lock down settings, are pretty obvious. I my parents hassled me all through high school about making sure I'm careful about what I do online.
5. Always delete messages from unfamiliar uses such as scammers.
6. Don't share personal information through games or applications.
7. Always log off social media sites when finished (I'm sure we've all been hacked before).
8. Don't use geolocation features which will criminals when your house is empty and thus easily robbed.  

 While I found most of these tips to be self explanatory I never really considered the issues associated with online reputation management and people using my name to make accounts or other fraudulent activities.