Avoiding identity hijacking online

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

The latest Aladdin Annual Threat Report warns that the boom in online social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, MySpace etc could very easily turn into an “online nightmare” with the rise of identity hijacking rather than identity theft damaging both personal and corporate reputations. The report calls for a “more reliable trustworthy model” to more easily connect an online persona with a true person.

In subsequent discussion on ReadWriteWeb there’s disagreement as to whether this is a genuine threat to most people. But if you are running a business, as Marketing Pilgrim advises, you should as a first step ensure you have some sort of online presence and appropriate social media profile. There’s no point allowing a vacuum for disreputable operators. While you may not think it’s a problem now, look how quickly email has been compromised by anonymous spammers located around the globe. And of course, make sure you monitor your reputation on an ongoing basis.