What is Status Jacking and How Do You Prevent It?

Social networking comes with certain dangers that you have to make yourself aware of before you start your online social networking life. One of the dangers is the possibility that your status will be hijacked. Hijacking something means that you overtake it forcefully and without permission. In real life situations, you may have heard about planes being hijacked such as the four planes that were hijacked in the United States on September 11, 2001. Status hijacking is quite different though. It is still forcefully taking something over without permission and with the intention of doing some type of harm.

There are things that you can do to keep your status from being jacked. Status jacking is when someone hacks your social networking account and either causes harm by sending status updates that you would in no way, shape nor form post yourself. Other hackers may decide that they will send all of your "friends" a virus. Your friends think that you are suggesting the site or video and click on it. Most people have learned how to distinguish the difference between real links and harmful links in FaceBook, but for those who haven't, it could be very damaging.

How to prevent status jacking:

Privacy Settings- Though you should keep anti-virus software on your computer, it does very little when it comes to status jacking. You need to keep your privacy settings in check. Make sure that people can't get into your profile to do damage. Don't add people that you don't know to your FaceBook account unless you absolutely feel that you must. Your privacy settings in your social networking site is the best protection you have against status jackers.

Distinctions- If you are going to use social networking sites, it is important to learn the difference between a safe link and a potentially computer fatal link. Though most of the links your friends post will be real links, the bad links are embedded so carefully sometimes that you may not be able to tell the difference. The best thing that you need to keep in mind is that if someone sends you a link in email, you should never click on it. Most people that post real links will do so on their wall rather than in a mail. You should also be careful of those links that friends have posted on the news feed. These can be dangerous as well. If the link looks suspicious to you, don't click on it. Nine times out of ten, if it looks suspicious, it probably is.

Don't open links- For those who are afraid they can't tell the difference between the two types of links, you should refrain from opening any links at all. Someone else's status may have been hijacked and if you click on the link, it could open you up to being status jacked as well. It isn't worth the risk.

Don't Use the Sites- If you are worried so much about status jacking, it might be better to wait to use social networking sites until you are better versed on what is dangerous and what is not. It is important to make sure that you feel comfortable when you join a social networking site. It might pay to wait and do a little research before joining so you are well set before you start on your social networking venture.

Family and Friends- Probably more important than anything else is to log out of your account when you walk away from the computer or your smartphone. This is how our family and friends so easily update our statuses to something that is definitely not what we would ever put in a status ourselves. Keep your password a secret as well.

Status jacking has been a part of the social networking scene for quite a long while. It isn't likely that it will go away anytime soon. We have to learn how to keep it out of our own computers because we are our own best protection. Protect your social networking site beyond the measures that you take to protect the computer itself. Put it into practice and you, your status and computer will be safe from status jackers.