This week I am continuing to share information and knowledge gained from the KySTE Spring Conference and want to focus on the sessions by Jim McKinney.  I attended the pre-conference workshop day and the third session of the TIS/TRT strand was on Social Networking: The Dangers of Too Much Information.  I got so much from Mr. McKinney I decided to take two other sessions from him the next day. 

McKinney has excellent credentials.  His background is in law enforcement and he now teaches courses for the academy.  In fact, he is the one who trains School Resource Officers for the state of Kentucky.  He stated everyone is exposing too much information online and putting themselves, and others, at risk.  He gave an example of a soldier in his barracks in Afghanistan, posting a picture online of he and his buddies with his living quarters in the background.  McKinney said it is fairly easy to get the coordinates of where the picture was taken and terrorists could then easily send an artillery unit there to bomb and wipe out the barracks.  That is certainly a scary thought!  Technology is also being used to "flash rob", much like a "flash mob".  In case you don't know, a flash mob is where a group coordination is done through devices like smartphones or tablets, instructing everyone to go to a certain spot and perform a certain task at a certain time.  If you've ever seen the commercial on television where the one man is in a station full of people and he starts a dance by himself and then realizes the time has been changed and his phone is too old and slow to get the information, that's a good example of a flash mob.  Apparently this same method is being used to coordinate robberies.  McKinney is concerned schools do not have enough adults to combat an organized activity like these and that SRO's could be overwhelmed.  It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out, in my opinion.

One example given by McKinney was a case which happened in a school district in Kentucky.  Some students copied the district logo from the district Website and set up a Facebook page.  They called school off on a Friday.  This probably would have worked, but someone alerted the district before the damage was done.  Also mentioned was the world of sexting.  Students must be taught the possible future impact of doing such things as posting inappropriate pictures.  Not only can it hurt them today, but in the future, potential employers may find these pictures and a person could lose a job offer because of it.  More and more employers are searching potential employees online to see what is posted on their Facebook page or what comes up in a Google search.  Students need to know that what they are doing today can impact their future.

McKinney gave many facts and statistics about social networking and how criminals are using it for data mining, or pulling particular information from the Web.  It is truly unbelievable how people are using the Internet for criminal purposes, but even more unbelievable how they are using it simply to hurt others.  McKinney specifically mentioned Topix which is a problem because it is anonymous for the most part.  It is difficult to find out information or prosecute cases due to the fact this company is in California, not Kentucky, so they often try to claim they do not fall under Kentucky law.  Also mentioned was My Yearbook which enables video chat and is one of the fastest growing social networking sites.  Facebook, of course, is the largest used social media.  (It was pointed out in a discussion at the recent Region One TIS/TRT Meeting/Training that adults have "taken over" Facebook and that more and more students are moving to Twitter and other social networking sites.)

Another scary thought is the fact meta data is embedded into files we all use, especially pictures.  EXIF data is attached to all pictures.  This information includes coordinates of where the picture was taken.  (Remember the first example given about the soldier?)  You can Google EXIF and download a free reader.  McKinney suggested turning off the location services on your phone to keep this information from going with any photos taken.  Another interesting piece of information is a geolocation.  Geolocation is identifying the real-world geographic location of an object, like a mobile phone or an Internet connected computer.  You can also download software which enables you to change the default geolocation of your device.  This means you can literally "hide" while online.  This makes it more difficult for law enforcement to trace and identify online criminals.  I found some facts about the information which is attached to pictures (jpeg images) and I was not aware of this.  For example, the EXIF information for a simple jpeg image contains the file name, the file size (both of which you might expect), but also the make and model of the camera, the lens aperture, the sensing method, the lens size, and the firmware version.  Other information attached to picture may include the ISO speed rating, the flash information, the type of image it is, the location of where the picture was taken, etc.  It was absolutely eye-opening to me to see all the information attached to pictures.  These readers are for both Mac and WIndows-based computers.  (BTW, EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format, in case you were wondering.)

McKinney ended by calling Google the "evil empire" due to the fact they are archiving all of our data.  However, I would like to point out Google isn't the only online entity to be storing data about our activities online.  Basically the overall point is this . . . if you don't want it out there for the general public, then don't put it online.  If you don't want others to know what you are doing online, then don't get online.  Basically our lives are open books if we are connected to the Internet, whether it be by smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, whatever.  It's like anything else in life - you never can be completely safe and secure and technology just opens one more avenue for criminals and others to take advantage of us.  Always be aware of your surroundings, whether in person or online and act accordingly.

Have an awesome week for spring break and watch what you are doing online!