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January 12, 2009, 01:15 PM ET
Should Colleges Warn Users About Twitter Scam?
Last week, a “phishing” scam struck Twitter, a micro-blogging service. It was a new problem for the latest species of social-networking site. And like most new problems involving such services, it challenged college administrators to determine how to address an issue that might affect students and professors.
As social networking has proliferated, especially at colleges, so have social-networking scams. Last month, it was a team of interlopers squatting in “Class of 2013” groups on Facebook for marketing purposes. This time, it was an Internet con artist baiting Twitter users into handing over their private log-in information.
West Virginia University’s Office of Information Technology was one college that cautioned its users about the Twitter scam, posting a brief warning on its own Twitter feed. Sarah Barnes, a Web developer for the university who posted the warning, said the volume of online scams makes it increasingly necessary for administrators to teach students how to avoid becoming victims.
Mark Greenfield, director of Web services at the State University of New York at Buffalo, argues that advising students on how to avoid Web scams should be part of a college’s duties in loco parentis. He said that administrators need to be “proactive, not reactive” about teaching students how to avoid online traps. “It’s part of computer literacy now,” he said.
In order to position themselves to authoritatively educate students about how to protect themselves online, Greenfield said administrators must not lag behind students in their familiarity with social networking risks and trends. —Steve Kolowich
Categories: Social-Networking, Security
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