Identity Theft – How To Protect Your Myspace Profile

Myspace.com, probably the most well known social networking site, and most popular among children and teens, has attracted scam artists, hackers, and identity thieves. From malicious worms that hijack your computer and expose your personal files, to profile hackers who use your profile to bulletin spam, Myspace is ripe with opportunities for hackers to take advantage of unsuspecting or uninformed users.

As of today, May 18th, 2008, a Google search on Myspace Security turns up 4.75 million results, of which the top 10 are about security breaches.

And, just so you know, I am not trying to deter you or your children from using Myspace; I would just like to ensure you do it from a position of knowledge and security.

Protecting You Profile From Intruders

There are several configuration settings now available from Myspace which can protect you and your profile. Below we’ll show you a picture of each of the settings pages and below each picture an explanation of each.

At the end of this post, there is also a video which explains each of my recommended settings.

Privacy Options

The most effective is the settings Profile Viewable By. In the past, Myspace only allowed children 13 years old and younger to use this setting, however it is now enabled for everybody. The settings “my friends only” is the most secure, but does not guarantee your information will remain private. Currently, there is bug in this setting which allows people to view all of your Myspace photos.

As a general rule of thumb when it comes to Myspace and your photos: If you wouldn’t want your mom to see it, don’t put it on Myspace. Also, even if you’re careful, I would recommend un-checking the box for allow my photos to be shared / emailed. The only reason to have this box checked is if you were a band or other business doing promotions or marketing.

Better Use Of Myspace Spam Filters

myspace spam Identity Theft How To Protect Your Myspace Profile

Using the spam filters provide some of the best identity protection available on myspace. For maximum security and ease of setup, just slide to bar to “high” and save all changes. For those of you who won’t more details, here they are:

Messages
- Allow Non-friends to send me messages: Disabling this feature is great for securing your profile, but inhibits the ability for you to make new friends, or for your friends to make contact with you on myspace. For most people, disabling anyone from sending you a message is overkill
- Require CAPTCHA [?] for non-friends to send me messages: It’s very likely that if you’ve signed up for an account on just about any website in the past year that you have seen CAPTCHA in action. CAPTCHA requires users to type in a word or two which is scrambled up in order to verify that they are human. This system will prevent malicious hackers from using programs called bots or other malware from sending you unwanted messages.
Friend Requests
- Require last name or email address: This is a great feature for protecting your profile while allowing people you know to find you (or your kids). They must type in your email address or your last name in order to send you the request.
- IF you enabled require last name or email address (which I highly recommend), there is no need to require captcha
- Regarding banks,filmmakers, and comedians… Unless you have a career in one of these areas, or have a deep interest in local and upcoming talent, you should uncheck these boxes.
Event Invitations
- Set this to “Allow only my friends and:” and uncheck all of the other boxes
IM Inivitations
- Myspace isn’t the best instant messaging platform, either for robustness of features or security. I would disable this and use an IM client such as Windows Live Messenger.

Application Privacy

myspace applications Identity Theft How To Protect Your Myspace Profile

Another great general rule of thumb for protecting your identity on the internet… Never, under any circumstances trust anything written by a 3rd party. In this case, many of these applications are written by third party developers. You have no control over what information they have access to, nor do you have control over what gets published straight to the internet. Select the option button “do not share data” and uncheck”allow applications to send me messages and comments.”