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This day’s Facebook News Update is courtesy of msnbc.com’s Technolog

Facebook attacks scam spam with new security tools

Facebook has the never-ending job of protecting its users from their own curiosity and it isn’t easy. Big events such as Osama Bin Laden’s death are always potential tools for people to prey on the unsuspecting Facebook user. In this case, it was the promise of satisfying a morbid curiosity to see photos of Bin Laden’s bullet-riddled corpse.

Last week scammers tried tricking Facebook users into spamming their friends accounts with a link supposedly from the BBC showing Osama’s body after U.S. troops got through with it, but all the link did was let a virus into their address book that spread the obnoxious message to everyone connected with the user.

“Clickjacking”, as it is known, tricks a person into accessing links and/or “Like” buttons by hiding the code underneath content that piques your interest — such as a video of that thing Justin Bieber did to that girl that “YOU WON’T BELIEVE”. Facebook claims it has fixed the hole in their system that let this particular virus run rampant through their community, but that never means we should drop our guard and think it’s safe (or wise) to click on the next implausible link that comes our way.

It is always in human nature either to ignore the advice to be careful or to say, “I’ll never forward anything or like anything else on Facebook again.” Let’s take the smart and cautious middle road, people, and just use a little common sense instead of either being cavalier or paranoid.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. “Like” and “Share” items of interest to your audience. If you are doing business and networking, stay away from the taboo subjects of sex, politics and religion (unless you are either a politician or a nun, of course, and that IS your business). Some family subjects are always safe to share such as a new child or grandchild in the house, but don’t go overboard. Let your audience gush over the news and give you a reason to gush more and upload more of those baby pictures.

CHECK SNOPES.COM FIRST! I can’t emphasize this enough! People either don’t know about snopes or forget to check before their itchy trigger finger hits that “send” button. Snopes.com gives you the lowdown on all the urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation out there that is or was circulating. Typing a few keywords into their search engine will bring up articles that either prove or disprove that incredible story you can’t wait to share. Remember the tired old, but reliable phrase, “If it is seems too good to be true, IT PROBABLY IS.”

MSNCB’s Technolog tells us, “Facebook’s new ‘Self-XSS Protection’ is meant to prevent spam spread by users tricked into cutting and pasting malicious code into their address bars. According to the Facebook blog, ‘Now, when our systems detect that someone has pasted malicious code into the address bar, we will show a challenge to confirm that the person meant to do this as well as provide information on why it’s a bad idea.'”

They will also be providing free tools for “safe surfing” by Web of Trust, so be on the lookout for them and they won’t take you by surprise.

My favorite tool so far has been the new “Login Approval” system implemented last month. I had hired an East Coast social networking promotion company to take care of promoting my jewelry and design business in the hours of the day either too early for me or while I am busy offline creating new designs. A great idea, but a surprise when I received an email of an attempt to log into my Facebook account from somewhere located in Maine. I knew who it was, called them to confirm they had attempted to login in to begin my campaign, and then verified the attempt as a valid one. It was a minor delay to my time and I appreciated it because it showed that Facebook was on the ball and now had a way of further safeguarding our internet accounts. You will not hear me complain ever about this new tool and the next person whose account is compromised by a hacker won’t complain either.

~ synopsis provided by Kristine Cherry, an internet guru/social networking junkie who will gladly help you if you ever have a question about a suspicious email or Facebook notification you get.