Create your Facebook and MySpace accounts before a hacker does it for you

I’ve blogged before about the importance of managing your online identity. This week, hackers at the recent Black Hat conference in Las Vegas set out to prove how very important that can be.

At the event, some of hackers participated in an experiment where they created profiles on Facebook and MySpace for prominent individuals. They created Facebook and MySpace accounts for people who had none, and used data that was easily available online to create the phony profiles.  Then the hackers used the spoofed accounts to send invitations to others – to be their Facebook or MySpace friends.  Suprise – the invitations were quickly approved as friends by people who should have known better – some of them prominent security analysts.

So – what’s the moral to this story? Actually, there are many best practices that we all should consider.

1. If you had don’t have a Facebook or MySpace account – then you should set one up immediately. You should have one on both sites – if only to ensure that someone else does not set one up in your name to impersonate you.

2. Don’t include too much detail on your Facebook or MySpace accounts. Some people broadcast an incredible amount of detail about their personal life, including their home address, their cell phone and home phone numbers, and photos that may be a problem later – for example, if they ever need a security clearance. According to computer security specialist Shawn Moyer, “Don’t put anything there [on Facebook or MySpace] that you don’t consider public.” And what you put on your profile can easily be copied by other computers – so it exists long after you have deleted it, as you have no control over other’s server.

3. Don’t accept friend requests from someone that you don’t know. For example, as Esther Dyson states on her Facebook profile: “I don’t respond to friend requests that don’t have a personal message proving I’m not just another entry in someone’s address book. I’m just trying to uphold the Facebook credo that you should actually know your FB friends.”  She attributes the practice of being guarding one’s online security as “online grooming.”

4. Don’t install 3rd party applications for Facebook and MySpace just because a friend of yours has invited you to do so, warned computer security specialists Nathan Hamiel and Shawn Moyer, speaking from the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. “People are going nuts adding applications they don’t need. . . People know if they go on a computer and download a program they could get a virus. . . They don’t have the same view of how dangerous that can be on a social networking site.”

Social networks really don’t care if you get pawned or not,” Hamiel said, using slang referring to a computer user being dominated and humiliated by hackers.  Manage your own online presence – and your online identity can be a boon, not a bust, to your career and your lifestyle.

And as a final note, I searched Facebook for Nathan Hamiel and Shawn Moyer – and could not find an account for either gentleman.

Create your web pages as if everyone has ADD

Imagine your users – coming to your site. What is their goal?  What do they want to accomplish?

Can users come to your website and accomplish their task in thirty seconds – or less?  Studies show that website visitors have attentions spans lasting between nine and thirty seconds. Someone with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) also has a short attention span, and difficulty completing tasks. So if your website includes a shopping cart, users are even more impatient. A Nov 2006 study identified ‘4 seconds’ as the minimum acceptable retail web page response time.

So developers who use artistic or cutting edge technology without considering its’ ADD-like users – have created a customer elimination website. If I sound flippant, actually I’m not. I know many people with ADD – and know many people who don’t. Both groups are equally impatient when online. Its also easy to feel the pain of an organization that spent big bucks on a website that alienates ADD users. In designing websites, KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) is the golden rule. If your users have short attention spans, simple designs and easy to read text is appealing to them.

I went to Websites that suck (2008 contenders) to find examples of websites where users can not easily accomplish their tasks.  In the examples below the customer elimination effect includes:
a. Key information is not on the top, left or center of the front page –where users expect it (users get tired of looking for info and leave, see eyetracking/heatmapping).
b. Important content is contained in flash, video, or audio instead of straightforward and easy to scan text (takes to long to render content and interpret it).
c. Inefficient use of screen real estate leaves key information placed at the bottom of the page (users won’t scroll as they assume important info is on the top)
d. Navigation is difficult (requires too much effort and time from the ADD user)
e. Layout is poor – menus don’t follow conventions and are hard to understand, read and user (requires too much effort and time from the ADD user)

1. Brill Publications: Problems: See items a through e above. Also, the site’s navigation is difficult and has too many urls. This site strays from the home page & supporting pages concept that users expect.

2. Land between the Lakes: Problems: a through e above.  Also, this site is problematic for color blind users- anyone who has trouble seeing colors in the green range will have difficulties, as will anyone who can’t read sideways.

3. Auglaize County, Ohio: Problems: Items a and c are the biggest problem this page has. Otherwise, it’s an okay page. But it is a BIG problems, as the first time user has no idea there is anything worth scrolling down to see. I kept clicking on the photos, thinking they were the entry into the site.

Cited Studies:
The average attention span for web browsing is about 10 seconds.

Akamai and JupiterResearch Identify ‘4 Seconds’ as the New Threshold of Acceptability for Retail Web Page Response Times – Nov 2006