Mixed feelings about Facebook
Yesterday, someone or some thing, created a blank profile that just said Mark Holman and started sending my friends requests. I thought I had tightened up security on my profile. While most things were already set to "friends only" or "only me" my friends list was set to "public". This small hole in my security was all it took for this entity to start trying to add my friends. I was alerted by a friend who noted that my list was set to public and I changed it immediately. After being reported, the "evil Mark Holman" was taken down by FB.
This incident once again makes me question why I have Facebook. It is convenient to communicate with a wide and diverse group of people, keep track of news and keep people aware and be aware of things in people's personal lives. Still, it is also a target. Infrequently, I get a friend request from a profile that purports to be some young, twenty something supermodel who likes to post provocative photos and nothing else on her profile. To me this is a bit creepy (20 something supermodels are creepy) and I don't add anyone that I don't know.
The recent incident makes we wonder what other unseen dangers lurk out in cyberspace and what might be next. A knee jerk reaction might be to take everything down and live like it's 1989. With increasing cyber wars with Russia, China and other smaller actors that can have outsized influence online, the world of the future might look a lot like the past.
This incident once again makes me question why I have Facebook. It is convenient to communicate with a wide and diverse group of people, keep track of news and keep people aware and be aware of things in people's personal lives. Still, it is also a target. Infrequently, I get a friend request from a profile that purports to be some young, twenty something supermodel who likes to post provocative photos and nothing else on her profile. To me this is a bit creepy (20 something supermodels are creepy) and I don't add anyone that I don't know.
The recent incident makes we wonder what other unseen dangers lurk out in cyberspace and what might be next. A knee jerk reaction might be to take everything down and live like it's 1989. With increasing cyber wars with Russia, China and other smaller actors that can have outsized influence online, the world of the future might look a lot like the past.
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