How Risky Is Your Social Network Activity? (Socialrisk)

Prof. Will McGill's students at Penn State's Information Scieinces and Technology/Security and Risk Analysis Program have done us all a real service.

They have taken a hard look at the risks associated with putting private data on social networks (such as Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace) and have developed a structured methodology for analyzing and assessing those risks.

SNAPR (the Social Network Action and Privacy Risk Methodology) -- as they call it -- is a free, online, step-by-step method for evaluating the risk associated with your social networking activities.

We have quite a few security investigators come through here each year and all of them have indicated tha they look at social network sites in putting together their background investigations.

Social network site do's and don'ts go well beyond job hunters looking for positions in the intelligence community, however. This well-designed and well-thought out student project goes a long way towards helping anyone who is trying to balance the risks and the rewards of social networking.