Community Manager
Hi all, I want to share with you a misadventure of mine from a few years ago, which occurred on a popular social media platform:
At the time, some malicious messages were circulating, received via that social media platform's messenger from trusted, but obviously compromised, contacts.
The various messages had a friendly tone and invited people to click on a link to "see how well you look in this photo" (or video).
The friendly tone and the trusted contact (friend or acquaintance) encouraged trust.
I FELL FOR IT... no! Of course not, but in the end I gave in!
Why did I do it?
Because, confident in my abilities, I WANTED TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN!
Good! Nothing happened, and I was disappointed!
Years later, I find myself fed up with communications regarding groups I wasn't a member of and whose existence I didn't even know existed; Obviously, it wasn't the first time the alarm bell had gone off, but I'm the type of person who has a thousand things to do and often doesn't have time to follow everything, so I put it off until "LATER."
One day, I sat down and decided to investigate... I checked the groups I was subscribed to, and there were so many, too many, and I hadn't been the one to do it.
Then I checked my social media history and discovered I was liking profiles and following people I didn't know; Arab sheiks, Indian notables, groups in unknown languages: they all had my deep (and silent) attention.
It took me days to clean up my profile, and despite my attention, every day, likes and subscriptions to various groups and personalities were automatically sent out in my name.
My profile was clearly in the hands of bots who were using it to give visibility to groups and personalities of various kinds.
It took me time and effort to figure out which of the thousand tools connected to my account had been infected and how to clean it up.
The underlying problem, which I want to bring to your attention, isn't the security of a link received from a trusted contact on social media, but the fact that I consciously and intentionally clicked on it.
I compromised my security because I felt capable of managing it, I felt powerful and secure, and I let my guard down.
MORAL: You can know everything, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll really help you. Security is nothing when you feel safe!
That said, the truth is that curiosity kills the cat, and boredom too. Venturing into the dark creates the adrenaline that makes us feel alive. Be like the cat; if you really must, use the sandbox! ;)
Community Manager
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