The publication’s “Annual State of the Net” report, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, also found that Americans have lost some $4.5 billion to cybercrime during the past two years, including replacing 2.1 million computers that have been compromised by malware.
The report based its findings on a survey of 2,000 online households conducted in January. Nine percent of social network users experienced some form of abuse within the past year, including malware infections, scams, identity theft or harassment.
Fifty-two percent of adult social network users have posted personal information that increases their risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime, the survey found. The numbers include those who have posted their full birth date (38 percent), photos of children (21 percent), children’s names (13 percent), home street address (8 percent) and even details of when they are not at home (3 percent).
The report, published in the June issue of Consumer Reports, cites seven things that users of Facebook and other social networks must stop doing immediately. They include:
1. Using a weak password. The report suggests avoiding names or words that can be found in the dictionary. Use a random mix of at least eight upper and lower case letters and numbers;
2. Listing a full birth date: Never list a full birth date (month, day and year). Only list a month and day – or none at all;
3. Overlooking privacy controls: Facebook users can limit access for almost everything they post, but not everyone makes full use of these controls;
4. Posting a child’s name in a caption: Don’t use children’s names in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking “Remove Tag.”
5. Mentioning being away from home: Doing so is like putting a “no one’s home” sign on your door, the report said. Be vague about vacation dates.
6. Being found by a search engine: To help prevent strangers from accessing a profile, go to the Search section of Facebook’s privacy controls and select “Only Friends for Facebook” search results. Be sure the “Public Search” isn’t checked.
7. Permitting youngsters to use Facebook unsupervised: Facebook limits membership to people ages 13 and older. If a young person is allowed to use Facebook, an adult in the same household should become an online friend and use their e-mail as the contact for the account in order to receive notification and to monitor activity.
related stories
Video
trending stories
sponsored resources

Cysurance
Cyber Insurance 360

EPOS
EPOS

Fujifilm
Fujifilm

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Storage Learning Center

Mimecast
Mimecast

Carbonite
Cloud Storage 360

Application Integration 360

Hitachi Vantara
Hitachi Vantara

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Cloud Learning Center

Tenable
Cyber Risk 360

Webroot
Webroot Learning Center

NPD
Industry Trends 360

BlackBerry
BlackBerry Learning Center

Symantec
Symantec Business Security Learning Center

Sherweb
Sherweb

Acer
Remote Workforce 360

APC by Schneider Electric
Digital Services for Edge Learning Center

Channel Chief Showcase

StorageCraft
Disaster Recovery Learning Center

Vertiv
Edge Computing Learning Center

Wasabi
Wasabi

Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies Hybrid Cloud Learning Center

Cradlepoint
5g for Business 360

Comm100
Collaboration & Communications 360

Veeam
Veeam

Smart 3rd Party
3rd Party Maintenance 360

Sophos
Sophos Cybersecurity Learning Center

Trend Micro
Trend Micro Learning Center

VMware

HubStor
Cloud Backup 360

eSentire
Managed Detection and Response 360

Comcast Business
Comcast Business Learning Center
