Not all Facebook memes are just for fun

I've recently been on cyber training at work, and one of the most important messages which came out from the meeting was the hidden means behind memes!

Not all Facebook memes are just for fun!

To gain access to banks and financial accounts that you own, you are often asked for your date of birth and/or your mother's maiden name.

A hacker will quite easily be able to track down your day and month of birth if you have an open profile on Facebook or have these details set to public.  If you have your Instagram account linked, they may well get your date from the birthday pictures posted there.

If you've seen the Netflix series YOU, you'll know exactly how easy it is to find out this sort of information!

What the hackers may not know about you yet are those two vital pieces of information; your mother's maiden name and the year you were born.

But how many of us have filled in a meme such as the one below (exaggerated to prove a point)?

"My Dragon Name is Purple Little defender of the ham sandwich for 34 years".  Sounds amusing right, and it's that humour that encourages others to forward on the meme.

From the above post, you can see that I was born in 1986 (Obviously this is for illustration purposes only), and my mother's maiden name is Little, and there we have the 2 main security questions often used by financial institutes!

Your Mother's Maiden Name
Your Date of Birth.

I know for many, this is obvious, a lot of us are cyber-security aware, but sometimes, you could be distracted, feeling a bit poorly or tired and it's then the possibility is there.

I'm not saying don't have fun with memes!  I'm just saying don't put out there anything that people can't already see!

If you've got your full name on Facebook, then obviously first and last name memes really can be just for fun.

Stay safe, from The Insane Robot !