Tim Champlin is not only a darn good lead singer (the Western Swing band Interstate Cowboy) he’s a good guy and a good friend. He would never send me something nasty. Would he?!
The thing is, he didn’t do it on purpose – he got it from Facebook. In fact, he got it from one of his other Facebook friends who he knew would never send him anything nasty either.
A Lot More Dangerous Than You Think
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all under constant attack, not just from spammers, but from smart, seedy, and even violent criminals.
While you might think this sort of thing is just a pain in the rear end, it’s not. It’s a real threat to your, your family and your business.
The USA Today article pictured above tells the story of Alice and her Facebook buddy:
“With a click of her mouse, Alice let the attackers usurp control of her Facebook account and company laptop. Later, they used Alice’s company logon to slip deep inside the financial firm’s network, where they roamed for weeks. They had managed to grab control of two servers, and were probing deeper, when they were detected.”
You’d Be Fooled Too
We’re all pretty savvy now when it comes to email spam. We know our bank is not really asking us to verify our account and we know SusieQue is not really hot for our body.
But, on Facebook, it’s our trusted friends who send these messages. In my case, because Tim has a band I just figured his link would connect me to a video of one of his songs, or maybe an upcoming concert. Wrong!
When I clicked the link, my computer went nuts and warned me that cyber-zomboid bots from evil lands were trying to take it over. I still don’t know how badly it’s been infected (read the USA Today article pictured above and it will scare the pants off you).
The Trust Issue
Tim, of course, is mortified. But, it’s more than that. As Gene Leganza said in our recent post, Twitter Spam – Your Friends are Innocent:
“What really bugs me about it is that it made me an unwitting agent of spam. It impacted my followers’ trust in me.”
For Tim, trust is his band’s most precious asset. Just think about who follows his Facebook Fan Page:
“The thing of it is, Michael, many of my Facebook friends are important music business contacts, and that business is built on trust. Anything that damages it could endanger my livelihood.”
Get a Clue, Facebook
This trust issue is why we are so critical of Facebook. They are dealing with this explosion of spam, crime and personal assaults on their site by stonewalling.
They simply ask us to trust them. We don’t, and you shouldn’t. It’s not enough for a Facebook spokesperson to say:
“We are constantly working to improve complex systems that quickly detect and block suspicious activity…”
We’d never stand for that kind of namby-pamby response from a politician after a terrorist attack. We’d demand swift and specific action that would protect us.
Facebook doesn’t seem engaged or concerned. They never send warnings and they don’t connect or respond to their customers in any meaningful way. This is a social network, isn’t it?!!
And, worst of all, sites like these are being given a free-pass from the hoards of social media gurus and pitchmen who act exclusively as cheerleaders. Almost no one holds up a hand and says “wait a minute.”
You better believe that Tim Champlin now says “Wait a minute.” You might want to, too.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for this article. I too am blown away by the risk that Facebook is exposing its customers too and their cavalier and commercial attitude in terms of their responsibility to fix. They will really lose credibility if they don’t step up.
Here’s my blog post on the subject:
Weak Response to Virus Attacks Show a Lack of Community Spirit at Facebook. http://bit.ly/c761N8
I do agree that this is a major problem. What came to mind is Windows, which is attacked incessantly by viruses. While Microsoft does try to (and does have to) address weaknesses to viruses, they don’t profess to be able to defend you. They recommend firewalls and virus scanners. Basically, to Microsoft, defending you from these things is not their job, and we’ve accepted that.
What I’m getting is that Facebook is taking a similar attitude – basically a ‘buyer beware’ philosophy, and (unless there’s a major backlash from consumers), they’re probably waiting for some third party operation to come out and sell a ‘social media virus checker’ – some sort of interface you’d go through to get to Facebook. At least that’s my guess.
I’m not saying it’s right. I’m just saying that’s what I see.
Your thoughts?
Thanks Peter and Ravi,
Peter wrote a pretty good article which he shamelessly hawks (just kidding, Peter) above. It is worth reading and very much on the same topic as this one. Interesting that just today there were stories about how Facebook may well have to divulge their financial information even if they don’t go the IPO route. That might tell us how much they are (or aren’t) spending on the virus protection issue.
Ravi, you have great points, but I do think that Microsoft kept working diligently (just not successfully) on providing protection for their operating system. In fact, don’t I remember that some of their efforts were met with lawsuits from folks like Norton Antivirus expressly because some of their protection would put Norton out of business.
Anyway, I’m less (and think Peter may be, too) concerned about the background technology than I am with how Facebook handles (or doesnt’ handle at all) the issues of communication and concern. That’s why I say, if they were a politician and stonewalled like they do, we’d throw them out on their ear.
Thanks to both of you for continuing the conversation.