UK government official recommends lying to Facebook

UK government official recommends lying to Facebook

According to a senior British government official, the best way to protect yourself on social media sites from cyber crime and identity theft is to lie.

An illustration made with a figurine set up in front of Facebook's homepage A UK government offical has suggested that users of social media sites should lie about the personal information in order to protect themselves from cyber crime. ©AFP PHOTO/JOEL SAGET

The advice, given by Andy Smith, an internet security chief at the Cabinet Office, to a Parliament and the Internet Conference on Thursday, has drawn both widespread praise and criticism, with one politician, Helen Goodman, describing his comments as "totally outrageous".

However, his remarks were supported by Lord Erroll, the chairman of the Digital Policy Alliance, who told the BBC that he had always given his date of birth as "1st April, 1990."

Smith said that providing fake details to social networking sites was: "a very sensible thing to do...When you put information on the internet, do not use your real name, your real date of birth. When you are putting information on social networking sites, don't put real combinations of information because it can be used against you." However, unsurprisingly, he also stressed that when using government or other official sites that users should always tell the truth.

Responding to the news, internet security firm SophosLabs said via its Naked Security blog that it's very easy for cyber criminals to harvest personal information -- that can aid identity theft -- from social media sites and so users should be very careful about what they choose to share. Therefore, users should lie about their age when possible but keep it within their rough age group as on most social media sites, a date of birth is required to ensure children are children and adults are adults. It also suggests being creative with security questions: "Similarly, if a website asked you for your mother's maiden name (which is a matter of public record) for the purposes of a password reminder, why not make up the answer? For instance, say ‘Xena Warrior Princess', ‘Robert Mugabe' or ‘Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria'. As long as you remember it, and no-one else can guess it -- that's all that matters. The same goes for your first pet's name, or the first road that you lived on."

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