Why Facebook?

How can I find out what the score was for Friday's game? Where are the parties for the weekend going to be at? Is she or he single? All of these questions are fairly common for a teenager to be asking. So, where is it that they go to find out all of this? Almost always it is Facebook. Facebook has adopted great power in the lives of young people recently. But, why do we love and trust this new website to practically control our lives? Is being this connected good for us? Most of us know what Facebook is and or have one for our selves. If not, then your are missing out badly! 

Facebook is the new place that most young people trust to control the majority of their online life. So why is it that we trust so much of our personal information to this brand new website? Most of us don't think of it this way. It might be because everyone is doing it. The classic reason to do things that you would not normally do applies even here. This is part of the reason that the social media giant has grow so rapidly. There is often an absent minded trust when it comes to up and coming things. We all just want to be in on the newest and greatest things. Although, our trust towards Facebook isn't only because of a new trend. Facebook does provide some great profile security options. This allows for you to only let a group as selective as your friends see your information. After all of these precautions that we go through to protect what we do on the site, is using Facebook a good choice?

Facebook is really only as good as you make it. If you use the site to stay in contact with friends, family, or anyone that is important to you, then I would say that the social service is worth wile for you. Although, there are some instances that Facebook can and has caused some harm. Its problems can be as small as reducing productivity in a work place to as bad as some creep stalking you. One colossal example of a recent event that shows how Facebook can be used for destruction is when the Egyptian government was over thrown! While the Egyptian rebels started to bring people to protest by shouting on the streets, young people in the same nation began to provoke the same message through Facebook. The rebellion then grew to over power Cairo, the capital city of Egypt. Once the Egyptian government knew about the use of Facebook in this way, Facebook.com was blocked nationally in order to help to control the uprising. Yet the word had already been spread and a soon to be successful overtaking was well underway.

This new form of social connectivity has made a new name for this generation. I personally love Facebook and all that it can offer in meeting new people to have fun with, or to meet the right people to get things accomplished with.  The use of Facebook is mostly opinion based, so it only matters if you like the impact of Facebook.

References:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9557703/Mother-learnt-of-daughters-death-through-Facebook.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/egypt-facebook-revolution-wael-ghonim_n_822078.html

Hacking Information

One of the fastest growing internet trends is the hacking community and their victims. There are about 7 billion people in this world, and about 1.4 million of them are some sort of hacker! It is time for you to gain at least some know-how of what a hack is and what you can or cannot do.

OK, this is NOT HARD. I will not suggest anything that will make you say, "wwhhhaaattttttt." Give it a try.

A "hacker" according to dictionary.com is-

 Computer Slang.

a.

a computer enthusiast.

b.

a microcomputer user who attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems.

Essentially, it is someone who wants access to your personal stuff. The kinds of ways that this person can "attack" you are through your local network (home wifi), an online network, and a physical hardware. These are the basic ways that anyone can contact you.

First, let’s start ultra-simple. Your physical hardware refers to your computer its self. The attacker could sit at your computer and start to type in a password guess, or have already deduced what it could be. You can protect yourself from this by using a long password, special symbols, capital letters, lower case letters, and numbers. Though it might be hard to remember, commit to having a great password.

Some examples of great passwords are:

My~4w3S0me*P4ss

F1uffY+M3=:-)

Now that you are all hooked up with an amazing password that not even your twin sister would guess, you are ten times safer. Unfortunately  a professional hacker could still get in psychically by plugging in a flash drive and wreaking havoc. There are no simple solutions to this problem so we will just move on.

The next point of access for a potential hacker is in your local network. Your local network is based in your internet or wifi modem. You can access the modem control panel by typing "http://192.168.1.1" in to your URL while you are connected to it. The real weakness is primarily with wifi modems. If you can see your home network from your driveway, then so can a creeper next door. The password on your home wifi mush be strong. You can refer to the password help in the previous section to improve your wifi password. Even though you could have a great password, your wifi could still be vulnerable. The type of password encryption that your wifi is set to mattes just as much as a strong password. There will be settings in the control panel that will say something like "wpa, wpa, and wpa2." Some of these are weaker than others. The "wpe" is the weakest with "wpa" and "wpa2" being subsequently stronger. Use the "wpa2" encryption if possible. Yet again, even if you have the best encryption and password, it can be cracked eventually by a professional hacker.

Lastly, you can be exploited through the world wide network known as the internet. Hackers can attack virtually anywhere from the point that you open your internet application. Your best hopes are to get internet security or an anti-virus. These are what keep the majority of normal people safe. Some brands like McAfee

and Norton are mediocre. I recommend Kaspersky Anti-Virus. This is one of the more expensive ones for good reason, because it can stop way more attacks than the others. Other than a basic security system, there are little more easy steps that you can perform to protect yourself.

HAVE YOU BEEN HACKED BEFORE?

Supporting web sites:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread832415/pg1

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hacker?s=t

http://usa.kaspersky.com/?domain=kaspersky.com