Can I Get a Virus from Face book? Social Networking Hazards
Social networking is the trend of this era. Ask anyone in a room and you can almost be sure that s/he has a Face Book Account. Face book and other social networking websites have redefined the meaning of communications. More people meet online now than they do in person, what with the pace of your lifestyles increasing every day. And now, a common question also rises: Can I get a virus from Face book? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding yes. While these social networking websites have made it easier for us to communicate with our loved ones even when we’re not physically together, they’ve also made it possible for hackers to gain easy access to personal computers.
- Can I get a virus from Face book by adding people? Not per se, but adding complete strangers is another thing. Face book allows all of your contacts to view your photos, personal information, status messages, and everything else. They’re also free to communicate with you by sending you private messages or writing on your wall. If you’re smart, you won’t add complete strangers as contacts. Face book is not the best place to keep business contacts either because you usually post very personal things in it. While Face book has limitation options, you can’t rely on these digital “walls” a hundred percent. It only takes one bug to mess up the program. Use your last name to limit searches, or better yet, do not have your account listed publicly at all. Set your account to “private” so that only your friends can view albums, status messages and personal information as well. This might defeat the purpose of meeting people online, but it will keep you and your computer safe. It will also keep your contacts safe because once your account is hacked; you bring down all of your contacts with you.
- Can I get a virus from Face book by opening messages? Yes, especially if you click on links which have no description or preview images on them. Hackers can always control the script of the Face book messages they send you, and although the message may come from a friend, there’s also a 50% possibility that your friend’s account has been hacked. While you can’t help but open messages on Face book, the best thing for you to do is to install an anti-virus software program. This way, if the message does contain harmful virus programs, your software can detect it and stop it from infiltrating your program.
- Can I get a virus from Face book by downloading image files? As long as you’ve updated your browser and you have an anti-virus software program installed on your system, you don’t have to worry about getting infected by a virus simply by downloading an image file. Face book is also equipped with virus scanners, so your only real worry here is clicking on links that are questionable.
- Can I get a virus from Face book by clicking on links sent by random apps? Yes. There have been a lot of cases when the password and the username of the account holders were hacked because they clicked on links to phishing sites. If you didn’t add the application, you shouldn’t be receiving links from it. Even if you did install an application to your page, it’s safer to just log in to the app and check out what the notification was for. Avoid clicking on links directly from your pop-up notification tab.
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