clickjacking madddddddness!

alright... so we all have a facebook account now days, right? it started off as a great way for friends and family to stay connected.. but if your page is like my page, it's getting taken over by JUNK! ok, well, maybe not so much MY page, but my feed is filled with it, and many of my friends have fallen victim to something called "clickjacking". what is clickjacking you ask? it's all those posts about links that sound pretty sketchy. "omg, you will not believe what this girls dad said to her to make her commit suicide!!!!!" "see the official videos of the death of osama bin laden!!!!!" "father walks in on his daughter!!!!" "see what you'll look like in the future!!!" tempting to click on... i know.... but don't! once you do, the link automatically "likes" whatever you clicked on, and then proceeds to post it on your profile...without asking nicely.... BAM! you are the victim of clickjacking!

there are also different ones, that once you click on it, it will do all the stuff i already explained, but then... oooooooh then!!!!! it sends it to everyone on your friends list. so it infects even more people. not good. it makes for several unhappy friends. and probably get you blocked...and no one wants that! the cycle then repeats, because your friends, thinking you sent them this 'awesome' link directly, and wanting to be a good friend and check out what you recommended, click on it themselves, and the spiral of clickjacking continues.

but fear not... there is something you can do!! first off... just be careful what you click on.. not just on facebook, but anywhere on the web. there is so much spamming going around on facebook now, you really need to look at the links before you click on them. is it a link from youtube that allows you to play the video right there in your feed? if so, that's a safe thing to check out. go ahead and watch. is the link going to take you to another website you've never heard of? probably not a good choice to click on. also, be sure to look at what the message your "friend" wrote on the link posted. does it sound like something they'd say? is it spelled correctly? or did some foreign taxi driver from queens probably write it? when in doubt, don't click! simple as that. or, if it's really something that interests you, do a search of it first. make sure you trust the websites you're looking at. anything serious will always be reported on news sites, or yahoo features etc.

if you do happen to fall victim to a malicious website that posts automatically on your page, simply report the post as spam or delete it. to do this, hover your mouse over the upper right corner of the post and a little "x" will pop up. click on that and it will bring up some options. click on the 'report as spam' tab and voila! you've helped report malicious posts on facebook, and it should delete it automatically. if it doesn't, just click on the "x" again and click remove post. it's very important to make sure you take the junk off your page so others don't accidentally fall for the same thing!



so hopefully this little blog can help some of you navigate the scary world of the internet. my goal is to post things that anyone with basic computer skills can follow and learn from or just open your eyes to things. i have several ideas already in mind, but if there is an internet topic that you're curious about, feel free to comment and ask questions! i'll talk it over with my resident computer nerd to get my facts straight, then reply back as best i can! comment as you see fit, for i'd love to get some discussions going! surf smart!