Introduction to Cyber Security

Instant Chats

Many social networking sites have tools that allow you to have discussions with your friends in real time. These operate like Instant Messaging and are one of the most insecure ways to communicate on the internet, both because they may reveal who you are communicating with, and what you are communicating about.
Connecting to the site via https is a minimum requirement for secure chatting, but even this is not always a guarantee that your chat is using a secure connection. For example, Facebook chat uses a different channel to HTTPS (and is more prone to exposure).
It is more secure to use a specific application for your chats, such as Pidgin with an Off-the- record plugin, which uses encryption. Read the 'Pidgin – secure instant messaging' hands-on guide.

9. Joining and Creating Groups, Events and Communities

What information are you giving to people if you join a group or community? What does it say about you? Alternatively, what are people announcing to the world if they join a group or community that you have created? How are you putting people at risk?
When you join a community or group online it is revealing something about you to others. On the whole, people may assume that you support or agree with what the group is saying or doing, which could make you vulnerable if you are seen to align yourself with particular political groups, for example. Also if you join a group with a large number of members that you don't know, then this can compromise any privacy or security settings that you have applied to your account, so think about what information you are giving away before joining. Are you using your photo and real name so strangers can identify you?
Alternatively, if you set up a group and people choose to join it, what are they announcing to the world by doing so? For example, perhaps it is a gay and lesbian support group that you have set up to help people, but by joining it people are openly identifying themselves as gay or gay-friendly, which could bring about dangers for them in the real world.

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