Is there security and privacy on MySpace? This can be a difficult question to answer because there are many possible answers. There can be a certain degree of security and privacy available on MySpace but as with any online community there is also the potential for unsafe situations and violations of privacy. However, there are a couple of ways MySpace members can ensure they are receiving the highest levels of security and privacy possible. This includes being familiar with the terms of service, taking active measures to protect yourself and making use of the privacy features included in the software.
Read the Terms of Service Carefully
Reading the terms of service carefully can give users an understanding of the amount of security and privacy available on MySpace. These terms of service provide members with useful information for the types of activities or content which are prohibited on MySpace. Understanding these regulations will help members to understand whether their actions or the actions of other members are in violation of the terms of service. While the MySpace administrators do not have a policy of policing the community for content violations, they will respond to allegations by other members of violations and will take appropriate actions if the members are in fact found to be in violation of the terms of service. These actions may include deleting the members account and taking appropriate legal actions.
The MySpace privacy policy is referenced within the terms of service and this reference incorporates the entirety of the privacy policy into the terms of service. As a result members who join the MySpace community and agree to the terms of services are also, by default, agreeing to the privacy policy. Therefore, members should carefully review the privacy policy and familiarize themselves with the terms of this policy.
Protect Yourself on MySpace
Members of MySpace do have a small degree of protection afforded by the administrators of MySpace but they can provide themselves with a great deal of additional protection by being aware of how the Internet works and using common sense. Generic safety tips for protecting oneself on the Internet also apply to the MySpace community. Just like it is not wise to give out sensitive information such as your address or social security number on online discussion boards, it is not wise to list this type of information on a MySpace profile either.
MySpace members may think the information they post on their profile is only being viewed by their friends and the members of their extended network but this is not true. There can be many individuals on MySpace who are lurking and viewing members’ websites all the time. Some of these lurkers may be completely innocent but others may be harvesting information.
Making Profiles Private
MySpace does have some features which can give members an increased amount of protection. The ability to make a profile private is one of these features. Most MySpace profiles are public and are viewable by both members of the community and nonmembers. However, those who wish to keep their website private can make it only available to those on their friends list.
Members of MySpace also have the ability to remove members from their friends list or block other members from sending them emails or instant messages. Only members in your friends list can post comments on your website so if there are members who are leaving malicious comments, you can remove them from your friends list to avoid future problems. Also, if you are receiving harassing emails or messages you can block users to prevent them from contacting you in the future.
By: Charles Petty
Archive for November, 2009
Security And Privacy On Myspace
November 21st, 20093 Simple Steps To Becoming A Better Network Marketing Recruiter
November 20th, 2009How to be a better network marketer in 3 easy steps
Network marketing is a popular home based business model because it offers great flexibility, leverage and compensation. However to get even more out of your network marketing business, you need to understand a few things.
To become a better network marketer you need to become a better recruiter.
Some people mistaken believe all they need to do is focus on products, tell the story and folks will come flocking to buy.
Sadly that is not so.
Perhaps the most important step in you network marketing journey to success is knowing the you need to build an effective marketing team and system so your efforts can easily be duplicated by the downline you sign up.
Doing this is the single greatest advance you can make and can end years of frustration, rejection and money drain.
At the heart of it all is not your company’s replicated web page, but something about you. People will buy into your opportunity and enthusiastically copy your efforts if they perceive you as the winning team. So your promotion al efforts first and foremost need to be about you.
So the 3 simple steps are:
Brand yourself Use a proven marketing system Teach others how to do the same.
How does this work? Great question.
In a few words: Free Lead generation.
People looking to become a better network marketer will join your team to learn how they can become successful too. This applies to anyone. So remember to sell yourself above all else. Network marketing is a model that speeds up your wealth creation but you have to work for it. Doing nothing and expecting your upline to place downlines under your group is another sure way to fail.
Network marketing is not by any means a get rich quick scheme. Network marketing is really a team effort. Network marketing opportunities aim to give people financial security and a higher quality of life but it is important to work together to achieve your dreams.
A new spin on MLM is the combination of network marketing with internet marketing, creating the highly leverage internet network marketing model so many are only now coming to understand.
Combining the two creates a pretty mighty beast that can set ordinary people on the path to riches. Whichever your company, an effective strategy is a bit like dominating a niche. This is a key to your success. Know you target market right down to the last detail and in your marketing, speak directly to them. Luckily Internet marketing is not all about huge advertising costs and a successful website launch.
Internet marketing your network marketing opportunity can broadly include SEO, PPC, paid ads, email marketing and much more.
However it is really the email marketing where you will find the greatest leverage, easily allowing you to build a solid relationship with your list members by offering them real value. This is both where you can brand yourself and show them how its done.
Internet marketing consists of blog writing , web content creation , feature article writing, press releases , and e-newsletter marketing . Internet network marketing combines all these for phenomenal results.
If you want to learn how to build your marketing team so it works tirelessly for you 24 / 7 then you could struggle on by yourself for a few years before going broke or watch what the pros do to recruit endlessly all year round.
Take the easier road and get the mlm blueprint to mlm success.
By: Francine Pullman
The Twelve Power Secrets for Network Marketing Success
November 20th, 2009The Twelve Power Secrets for Network Marketing Success
By Rod Nichols
My first book, Successful Network Marketing for the 21st Century was an industry best seller for several years and helped tens of thousands of network marketers build successful businesses. However, I always felt there were some key knowledge missing from that book and so, over the last three years, I’ve been working on a new book and today I’m happy to announce that The Twelve Power Secrets for Network Marketing Success has been released through Unlimited Publishing. This is the best book I’ve written on network marketing, as it is packed with millions of dollars worth of ideas for building a large and lucrative network marketing business. In the following article, I’d like to give you a great overview of the book. The information in this article alone could help a fledgling or struggling network marketer turn their business into a money maker, so imagine what the book could do. Please enjoy the article, put the information to work and do as I have and build a lifetime stream of residual income, so that you can have both financial and time freedom.
Here are the twelve power secrets for network marketing success:
Power Secret One: Select the Right Company
During my nearly 29 years of network marketing, I’ve selected the wrong company a number of times. Not that the company was bad, although there were a few that were, but rather they weren’t a good fit for me. Even if a company is growing rapidly, has an amazing product, solid compensation plan, and great marketing materials, it doesn’t mean that it’s right for everyone. The questions you have to ask are: Does the company have the same values as mine? Are they marketing in a way that is suitable to my personality? Do they offer a product or service that I can get passionate about? Is the compensation plan suited to my abilities, time commitment, and talents? Once you answer these and other questions, you will have a better feel for whether a company is right for you and although selecting the right company doesn’t guarantee success, it does drastically increase the odds. The key is to do your due diligence and make a good selection.
Power Secret Two: Pick the Right Sponsor
One of the biggest mistakes I see made in network marketing is picking the wrong sponsor. Typically one of two things happens. Either a person gets sponsored by a friend, family member, or associate, who doesn’t know anything more about building a successful network marketing business than they do. The second option usually happens after a bad experience with the first option and so they begin researching to find a big hitter to sponsor them. The problem with being sponsored by a big hitter is that they don’t always have time to work closely with new people. After all they probably have thousands of people in their network, all needing some level of attention. The key here is to be sponsored by someone who is serious about building a big business and is willing to dedicate the time to help you succeed. It’s also important that your sponsor have similar values and be someone you would enjoy working with very closely. Again, picking the right sponsor doesn’t guarantee success, but it sure helps.
Power Secret Three: Develop Purpose, Goals, and Objectives
Over the years I’ve trained and coached tens of thousands of network marketers and have found that most don’t really know why they are in business. It’s critical to long-term success to have a solid “why” or purpose for being in business. It might be to have more time freedom to enjoy your family or to secure your financial future, so you can give your time to ministry or charity work. It might be to become the largest contributor to a charity or ministry. Whatever your purpose, it needs to be vibrant enough to keep you going during the tough times. Once you have a solid purpose, then you must determine what needs to happen in order to achieve that purpose – these are called goals and are the stepping stones or road signs along the way toward your purpose. Goals need to be written and reviewed daily. Often goals are too big to determine what to do on a daily basis, so you should break them down into manageable activities called objectives. Start each day by reviewing your purpose, goals, and objectives, then start working on the highest priority objectives and you will quickly reach your goals and achieve your purpose.
Power Secret Four: Right Attitudes and Beliefs
Many people fail in network marketing because they don’t have the right attitude. They treat their business like a hobby, working at it whenever time allows, rather than treating it like a business and scheduling regular time for business activities. I’ve also encountered many people in network marketing businesses, who show signs that they believe that what they are doing isn’t quite on the up and up, which makes it difficult for them to talk with people. It’s critical to success in network marketing to build belief in three areas: First, is believing in the network marketing industry (if you are struggling in this area, order my book The Ideal Business, by visiting my web site at www.RodNichols.com and clicking on Store). Second, is believing in your company and the products/services. Third, is believing in yourself as a network marketing business owner. If your belief is not strong in all three areas, success will elude you.
Power Secret Five: Treat it Like a Business, Not a Hobby
What does this mean? Most people who enter the network marketing industry have never run a business, so they don’t know what it means to treat it like a business. The keys are to first have the right attitude and second the right actions. Network marketing is one of the very few businesses that can be built while still employed at something else. The great part is that you keep your current income, while building another stream, which eventually will replace the first source. However, in order to do that, you must do the things that successful business people do. You must be consistent and persistent with your business and work on the most productive activities every day. Finally, you need to make a long-term commitment to your business. I have to laugh when someone says they’ll give it a try for six months or so. I’ve owned businesses, both network marketing and traditional, for many years and I’ve yet to find one that would produce a full-time income within six months, while building it on a part-time basis. Yes, some people earn big time income in network marketing within their first six months, but it’s because they put in a more than full-time effort or already had a massive circle of influence. For the average person, like me and probably you, it’s going to take some time and effort to build your business, but if you do it right for the next few years, you’ll never have to worry about money again.
Power Secret Six: Have a M.A.P.
If you were going to drive your car from Seattle, WA to Orlando, FL, would you just jump on the nearest highway and start driving, in hopes that some day soon you’d reach Orlando? No, that would be ludicrous and yet, that’s how most people build a network marketing business. It’s a journey and you need a M.A.P., which stands for Marketing Action Plan. This plan will guide you from where you are right now to where you want to go in life. It should include your purpose, goals, objectives, marketing strategies, and a daily plan to implement those strategies. That way, you are always on track toward your goals and purpose.
Power Secret Seven: Become a Master Prospector
If you were wandering through a field and stumbled across a goldmine, you would immediately buy the lot, purchase digging equipment, and begin to mine the gold. Well, you have stumbled across a goldmine and it’s in your network marketing business. The key is to prospect for the gold nuggets among your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, congregation members, people out on the internet, and people you meet out in public. There is a direct relationship between the quantity/quality of prospecting and the amount of money you make, so become a master prospector and watch your income sky rocket.
Power Secret Eight: Treat Different People Differently
If you are treating everyone exactly the same, then you’re missing the boat with 75% of them. There are four basic personalities and although we operate at times in all four, every person functions primarily in one of the four. By understanding the characteristics of each personality, you can better communicate and present to prospects, plus train and support those in your network. Understanding and recognizing the different personalities will increase your sponsoring and retention ratios.
Power Secret Nine: Become a Master Presenter
There is an old saying that says “facts tell and stories sell.” If you want to become a successful network marketer, you must become an excellent story teller. At first, you will tell the stories of successful people in your upline and later you’ll share your own success story. People love to hear stories and will better retain the information you’re presenting. Effective story telling is one part of becoming a master presenter and by becoming one, you will move yourself into the ranks of the top performers in your company.
Power Secret Ten: Become a Savvy Internet Marketer
The basis of network marketing is building networks of people who buy and sell products/services. What better place to build a network of people than on a natural worldwide network called the internet? According to Internet World Stats, which you can view at www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm, as of 2006 there were a little over one billion people on the internet worldwide and that’s up from 101 million in 1998. As you can see, the internet is growing rapidly and is the place to build a network marketing business. However, it’s easy to get lost or overwhelmed on and by the internet, so the key is to learn how to be a savvy internet network marketer. First, you want to have an effective lead capturing web site with autoresponders that follow-up on your prospects. Second, you’ll need an effective database or contact management system that helps you remember to follow-up personally with qualified prospects. Third, you want to have an excellent online presentation system including web site based presentations in flash or video and live webinars. Fourth, you’ll need to have a pass-coded training web site that takes your new associates through some basic training. From there you’ll want to learn about funded business proposals (check out my new funded business proposal system www.the2percentplan.com/plus), pay-per-click advertising, and social marketing. Becoming a savvy internet marketer will add a number of effective business building weapons to your arsenal and help you build a large and lucrative business.
Power Secret Eleven: Develop Leaders
When I joined the industry in 1979, I was taught that if a person could fog a mirror I should attempt to sponsor them. Well, it’s one thing to sponsor a bunch of people and it’s something completely different to develop leaders. Leaders will duplicate, causing expansion of your network without any effort on your part. Leaders will attract other leaders and potential leaders, so learn how to identify and sponsor leaders, plus how to train and develop them. Once you’ve developed several organizations that have at least one leader, you will have a solid base for building a long-term walk-away residual income.
Power Secret Twelve: The Ultimate Power Secret
This is actually the most important of the power secrets. You can effectively use the other eleven and without the ultimate power secret you will still only enjoy marginal results. This is the difference between a double A battery and 220volts of electricity. In fact, the ultimate secret is the real power behind every success. Think about your computer. You could have the latest, greatest, and most powerful computer made by man, but if you don’t plug it into the wall and power it up, the computer is useless. Once you plug into the ultimate power source, amazing things will begin to happen – leaders will be attracted to you and your business, your marketing campaigns produce better results, and you suddenly know exactly what to say to a prospect. This is the culmination of all the power secrets for network marketing success.
Everything you need for massive network marketing success is contained in these twelve power secrets. However, failure or success is truly in your hands and is dependent on what you do with this knowledge. Obviously, I couldn’t include all of the information in each power secret or this would have been a very, very long article, so if you’re serious about building a large and lucrative network marketing business, you might want to pick up a copy of my new book by visiting www.RodNichols.com (store). However, even with all the information, it’s still up to you. Knowledge is power, but only when put into action, so the question is whether you are ready for success or not? If you are, then put this knowledge into action and in a few months to a few years you’ll enjoy the fruits of your labor – financial and time freedom.
By: Rod Nichols
Winning at Corporate Security
November 20th, 2009Here, I’m not talking about a security guard post where you wear some faux cop uniform and a tin badge. You don’t need pounds of skill to work that kind of beat. I’m talking about the upscale security work, where you get to wear a suit and your biggest concern won’t be handing out parking passes. Corporate business parks, hotels and casinos, entertainment establishments, private estate security, and the like.
Based on my experience in the field and some good and bad examples I’ve observed, a few pointers:
Be in reasonable physical shape
You’re playing a hard enough game already by being a private security figure, which some scoffers already discredit as being a “rent-a-cop” or “hired goon”. The last thing you want to do is make yourself appear even more ineffective by being rotund, flabby, or looking like the high school geek.
In a situation where you’re trying to get a better look at somebody across a lot or trying to gain a couple of paces on a car so you can see the license number, nothing’s worse than running out of breath. So it should go without saying that you should not smoke, should cut back on the diet, and try to show up at a gym at least once a week. It can only help.
Look professional
Whatever your uniform requirements, you above all have to present the appearance of authority. A spotless, conservative appearance will be like a magic spell, instantly adding to your command presence. We’re talking crew cut hair, ditch the beard and sideburns, and have polished shoes. It can make the difference between “Yes, sir.” and “Why should I listen to you?”
Any job where you have contact with the general public, your presence is high-profile. If you like to have freedom to wear a ponytail and earrings to work, corporate security is just not for you. Private security already works at a disadvantage – you have to function as private citizen-level law enforcement to maintain control of every situation with little more to back it up than your word. Chances are you’re working unarmed or with limited backup. So psychology is one of your most important assets.
Be well-read and well-spoken
The well-read part is the reports which you’ll be writing. As is always emphasized in training, the incident reports that you take may become court evidence. For hand-written reports, again, if your printing is sloppy or your writing is not up to par, you are simply in the wrong line of work. Spelling, grammar, and a good vocabulary will lend credibility to the incidents you’ve witnessed. Should your report become evidence in a court case, don’t think that your writing quality won’t be under scrutiny; it will be. A carelessly written report indicates that you could be careless about other things, and that’s all that’s needed to create reasonable doubt in the minds of a jury. Lawyers just on stuff like this.
The well-spoken part is of course applied to dealing with the public. Private security relies heavily on public contact, and every good security professional is just a little bit good at being an actor. Assume an attitude of confidence, but not arrogance. Speak plainly and clearly, but directly. If you have to raise your voice, bluff, or escalate a confrontation, you’ve already lost.
Be prepared to hear a lie
This is not to say that you should be unreasonably paranoid. But if you work with public contact, you might as well take it for granted that you’re going to have people trying to bluff their way past you or around you with every fairy tale they can think of. Interview your subject, and get good at reading body language. Be suspicious of motive.
Be unpredictable
Nothing is worse, if you’re on a patrol, than to do the same things in the same order every day. Anybody who wanted to penetrate your property would of course be looking for you, and it would be simple to track and time your movements. For this reason, be careful to vary your routine on a daily basis. Even changing your methods is necessary sometimes.
Hopefully your business understands this. The worst case is where you are required to hit some kind of key system at regular intervals; this does nothing but make management think that you look busy, and you should make some kind of effort to let it be known that you are unable to do your job effectively under this condition. Security work is a variable. Infiltrators already have an advantage in that they know what they are going to do. You don’t; all you can do is be ready.
Be extra paranoid about computers
Hopefully you have your own IT technician on site who deals with security from the computer end, or you have other specialist assigned to this. Even then, computers make your job about a hundred times more complicated. No matter how careful you are, information security at the average corporation is a losing game, simply because of the people factor. People download viruses, write down their passwords and stick them on monitors, carry laptops home and lose them, drop their ID badges, answer the phone and supply everybody who asks with their personal identity data, respond to phishing scams, and a hundred other things besides.
It is a complete myth that computer security crackers gain access by mere technical know-how. A solid 90% of a cracker’s work involves either ’social engineering’ (exploiting the people factor like the methods described above) or dumpster diving or gaining access to the property.
Sadly, there is no way to fix this, as educating users has been shown to be ineffective. Everybody who is willing to learn has already learned, and the remainder may certainly try to convince you that they don’t know any better, but in reality they are harboring a backlash effect where they resent technology because they feel intimidated by it. So yes, a percentage of employees really are giving their user name and password to the person on the phone claiming to be the repair person on purpose! And some users really do know that they’re downloading viruses but they don’t care, because they know the sysadmin will just wipe their drive and re-install their system for them.
Maintaining a program of computer security education will of course be necessary and will address part of the problem, but just take it for a fact that your network is vulnerable at all times, from all kinds of passive-aggressive sloppiness. No matter how many times the MSCE assures you that there is no wireless access into the company network, that kid in the parking lot at two AM playing with the laptop has found a hot spot. Count on it.
By: Josh Stone
VOIP security guide
November 18th, 2009Revolutionizing the world of telephony, VoIP has become one of the fastest growing technologies of today. It has quickly gobbled up the market for the traditional and well established tools for communicating over large distances, by making them look antiquated and expensive.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is basically a process which converts your voice into digital signals that travel over internet. Its most prominent feature is its affordability. With VoIP you can make long distance calls at a fraction of cost that you used to pay to your telephone companies. It is primarily because of the fact that transferring digital signals over internet is quite cheaper than transferring analog signals over the traditional telephone lines.
However, nowadays VoIP is in the news not for the great savings in long distance calls that it offers but for the security concerns attached to it. As VoIP runs through internet, the information exchanged can be intercepted by anyone at any time. Moreover, because of its popularity VoIP has become a soft target for the hackers. In the absence of a strong firewall system, hackers may capture sensitive information such as credit card number and bank details. They can even launch denial of service attacks and shut down a voice conversation, or send spam or virus over the internet to disrupt the services. Another vulnerability that the IT sector is worried about the hacking of VoIP networks for making free calls. According to industry sources, a new generation of “phreakers” may be able to manipulate the data switched through a hybrid TDM-VoIP network which will allow them to exploit the billing system to make free calls. Another menace that is plaguing the VoIP networks is ‘caller-id spoofing’. There are some hacking websites that allow people to control the phone number that appears on the receiver’s caller-id display. Moreover, they can modify their voice with the help of voice modification software. Thus, they have become a useful tool for private investigators and pranksters.
VoIP service providers are now trying to secure their customers from these threats through the tunneling and encryption processes. These techniques prevent the hackers from capturing the information packets as they pass through the internet. Most of the service providers are using Layer 2 tunneling and an encryption method called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to prevent anyone from getting the confidential information. However, despite of all these possible threats the IT segment is still enthusiastic about the cost savings and the added functionality that VoIP offers to their business. Most of them consider VoIP as a reliable and robust system and the security concerns not so serious to hamper the progress of VoIP.
Thus, although the attacks on the VoIP systems are at a nascent stage but they may gain teeth and hit the consumers sharply as the hackers become aware of the details of this service. Thus, it is necessary for the concerned authorities to understand the criticality of the situation and be ready to take the necessary preventive measures to prevent any major impact of these threats on VoIP in future.
By: Mansi Gupta
