Hacking or Social Engineering?

David Emery on About.com, wrote a comment on a post on RE: Facebook and other social network hacking.  I'm cutting and pasting David's original words below because I think he's spot-on with his advice. To get to the original article, just click on the title of this blog post.

"Email warnings about alleged hackers capable of stealing your personal info if you merely reply to their messages or add their names to friends lists are a dime a dozen and based on a false premise, namely that it's just that simple to hack into someone's email or Facebook account. It isn't.

That said, such break-ins do occur, so there are two real threats every email user or member of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter should beware of:

1. Messages from strangers asking you for personal information (e.g., user name, password, phone number, etc.)
2. Messages from strangers containing links to unfamiliar file attachments or websites

Both are methods often used by actual hackers and identity thieves to steal personal information online. The first, often referred to as "social engineering," is self-explanatory, and, obvious though it may be, seems to work extraordinarily well on naive and unsuspecting users.

Don't reveal your passwords or other sensitive data to anyone!

The second method, which lures users into clicking links that download malicious software onto their computers, is just as effective. Said malicious software might contain, for example, a keystroke logger which records user names and passwords and transmits them to identity thieves on the other side of the world, or a program which turns over control of the victim's computer to a hacker (or to a "botnet" which can take over a vast number of computers at the same time), or both.

Don't click on any links sent to you in online messages unless you're familiar with the source and confident the link destination is benign.

Also, for security's sake:

Don't use passwords that would be easy to guess based on other information available on your website, in your Facebook or MySpace profile, or anywhere else online.

And, last but not least:

Do maintain adequate antivirus and/or Interent security software, including a firewall, on your PC."