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Social media is more popular than ever, and so are viruses, malware and online scams. The chart below sheds some light upon how important it is for social networking users to stay on top of the basics of online security.

With even Ke$has Twitter account being hacked, one can never be too careful when it comes to social media security. Veracode application security testing platform has laid out a chart on the basics.

Some key points are that since social media exists in a cloud computing environment, it is more vulnerable than that of a traditional network, and the interconnective nature of social networks is an ideal setting for the propagation of malware. The chart adds that core distribution of malware is through social media sites, and tips are given for users to protect themselves.

Interestingly, the top 5 categories of Facebook spam are stalking, free stuff/games/Farmville, shocking curiosities, features not offered by Facebook and games not offered by Facebook.

The chart ends with the notion that, you dont have to avoid all forms of Social Media to be protected, but you do have to be aware of malware and scams. Educate employees as well on Social Media safety and best practices to reduce your companys risk from costly losses and identity theft.

Hat tip to Veracode.

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Social Media Security Basics Infographic

Wouldnt it be great if you could prove youre more valuable to your company than everyone else?

Thats the idea behind a new social networking tool from Saba, an outfit that makes human resources software. On Tuesday, the company will unveil yet another Tweetbook-type application for businesses, called the Saba People Cloud, competing with business social networks such as Yammer and Jive. But theres a twist: Everybody gets a People Quotient (pQ).

Yes, the pQ is a number that seeks to rate how valuable you are. Its reminiscent of services such as Reppify and BranchOut that analyze your activity on public social networks Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to create a score for HR departments thinking about hiring you. Instead, Sabas grabs similar info from its own company-specific social network and build a score specific to your activity in the workplace.

In some fields, employees are already rated with hard metrics. Salespeople are easily ranked by the number of deals or dollars they bring in. But in other cases, your impact to the company is difficult to pin down. Saba CEO Bobby Yazdani tells Wired that he wants to cultivate an environment where a company knows exactly how well all employees are performing. We want an organization where people can benchmark themselves and know the impact of what they do, he says.

At this point, sharing a pQ score across the network is optional. But to many, it may feel like another example of social networking turning into Big Brother. While Yazdani says Saba is just starting this journey with pQ, rating ones performance according to their activity on a social network will undoubtably provoke debate. After all, theres more to work than sharing, commenting and the other nuances of social networking.

The algorithm behind pQ will examine a wide range of data. Simple tasks like completing your Saba profile and entering background certifications contribute to the score. But as you use the service regularly updating your status, following other employees, and being followed your activity will play into the score as well.

The engine looks across an organization to compare your performance against other managers with similar positions and goals, and it determines the quality of your social interactions and contributions across the company. The idea of quality is part Google search algorithm, part gamification, and part natural language processing. Its like a corporate Klout score a controversial score that rates your social networking impact on the public internet.

The more you accrue followers, engage with others, and post stuff that people reference in their own posts, the better your pQ score. If you share a report you wrote and a bunch of people cite it, your pQ increases. Saba also runs through the feedback and comments on what you share, and it decides whether it was of value to the company.

Not all businesses have the same goals and operations. But Saba says that as employees share and interact on Sabas network, the algorithms learn how people operate and react accordingly. The system also alerts employees when their scores are low.

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Meet Saba, the Social Network That Rates Your Job Skills

MANILA, Philippines - Social networking is everywhere. It started out with people accessing their pages with only their PCs and notebooks. Now, users are accessing their pages using their tablets and mobile phones. Because of this phenomenon, it has also changed the way people communicate - be it personal or at work. A couple of years back, people open first their email than any other application. Now, its Facebook or Twitter first before anything else.

Just recently, the NPD Group released a study stating that videogame sales fell sharply in February. Sales of game software in the U.S. went down 23% in February compared to the same period last 2011. NPD data only includes sales made through traditional retail outlets and not those made over digital channels.

According to NPD, the top selling game for February 2012 continued to be ''Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3'' from Activision Blizzard Inc. followed by ''Final Fantasy XIII-2'' from Square Enix, ''UFC Undisputed'' by THQ Inc. and ''Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning'' by Electronic Arts Inc. On the hardware side, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corporation sold 426,000 units. Nintendo Co. said it sold 228,000 units of its Wii cosole and 262,000 units of its handheld 3DS console during the month.

Now, where will we attribute the continuous decline of video game sales? I would dare say that social and mobile gaming has a lot to do with this changes.

If you could still remember, there was a time Farmville was one of the most played games. Then came Angry Birds. Now, people are playing Move the Box and Temple Run. Just to share with you, the top 10 paid iPhone games are: Angry Birds / Fruit Ninja / Doodle Jump / Cut The Rope / Angry Birds Seasons / Words With Friends / Tiny Wings / Angry Birds Rio / Pocket God / Camera+.

Top 10 iPhone downloads (Free) are: Facebook / Pandora Radio / Words With Friends Free / Skype / The Weather Channel / Google Search / Google Earth / Angry Birds Free / Shazam / Netflix. Temple Run is number 18. As an additional info, as of November 2011, Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 500 million times. While Temple Run has been downloaded 36 million times as of February 2012.

Now why the sudden popularity of these games? I believed it has something to do with the popularity of these devices: iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch. Not to mention, of course, that most of the games are free to download. Portability is another reason, gamers can practically play with these games from anywhere and anytime. Interactivity can be another reason since the games can be played with other players worldwide.

In other words, the landscape of how people play games is changing or has changed. Most of our young gamers are looking for devices that they can play games with, call, browse, text, take photos, videos among other things. A device that will entertain them and at the same time allow them to communicate with their friends.

The challenge now for game developers is to incorporate their games with social and mobile media. They should also price their games competitively, its very difficult to compete with games that are provided free of charge. The revenue stream has changed as well. Social and mobile media game changer and game developers have no choice but to join this new landscape.

I am logging off. Stay cool and God Bless!

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Social Networking Changes Gaming Landscape

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

As social media usage continues to rise, its only natural that statistic correlations will be made about the individuals who use the medium. This isnt a bad thing; its common to deep-dive into demographic information and behavioral data. While there will always be exceptions to the "correlations" that emerge from such data, universal truths about social networking usage and user behavior can be valuable.

[More from Mashable: Encyclopedia Britannica vs. Wikipedia [INFOGRAPHIC]]

The Ethics Resource Center (ERC) is the oldest non-profit organization in the U.S. dedicated to independent research and advancement of high ethical standards and practices in both public and private institutions. Since 1994, the ERC has produced the National Business Ethics Survey (NBES), available for free to the public, to gather information about employees perspectives of ethics in the workplace.Dr. Patricia J. Harned, president of the ERC, says the NBES is the only longitudinal study that represents the views of the U.S. workforce in business.

The ERCs latest report is one of the first to explore the possible connection between ethics and social media. Social networking has become very important in our culture, and we wondered if the technology is influencing employees views about ethics at work," Harned explains. "Additionally, over the past few years, we have seen companies establish policies concerning social networking in the workplace, so this year it seemed fitting to add questions on the topic.

[More from Mashable: 8 Reasons People Arent Following You Back on Twitter]

One of the most fascinating conclusions in the report is that "active social networkers show a higher tolerance for activities that could be considered unethical." But Harned says the findings are not an indictment about the character of social networkers: It appears that they are more willing to consider things that are gray areas -- issues that are not always clear in company policies as wrong; and thats an area for further study.

The report also points out that active social networkers are at higher risk for observing misconduct. Harned stresses that it's observing wrongdoing, not necessarily participating in it.You could also look at another set of our responses -- particularly the high number of active social networkers who reported misconduct -- and say that social networkers behaved appropriately, she explains.

In order to understand any potential connection between ethics and social networks, it only makes sense to step back and discuss what ethical behavior means. Jay Shepherd, author of the book Firing at Will: A Managers Guide, sums up unethical behavior with a sentence.

Its like pornography: You know it when you see it. Its as simple as knowing the right thing to do, then doing the wrong thing.

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Ethics and Social Media: Where Should You Draw The Line?

Facebook, MySpace and Bebo are in the firing line from Cyber Safety Committee deputy chair, Alex Hawke, for allowing Australian children younger than 13 to use their websites despite a 13+ age restriction.

Hawke said that unless social networking websites show more responsibility, Parliament may be forced to impose regulations so there are effective measures taken to protect children and deal with online bullying.

He told Computerworld Australia that the options it is considering would include age verification laws which require social networking websites to verify the age of their users.

There has also been the question of an internet ombudsman as an option for people to have the ability to raise these problems with a central portal, he said. Were also encouraging social networking sites to open offices in Australia or at least have an arm which can be dealt with by Australians as a way of preventing regulatory response.

According to Hawke, Facebook is the only company to have appointed a representative in Australia.

He added that Parliamentary committees have heard the farcical suggestions from social networking companies that there are no children under 13 years of age on their websites.

The problem is these social networking companies continue to say `were offshore and there is nothing you can do about it when were dealing with profoundly young children using these sites and these companies really need to engage better with regulators in Australia, he said.

Hawke, who is also a Coalition MP, said that the Coalitions Online Safety Working Group is actively looking at the proposed regulations.

If we are returned to government, we will put in place policy in this area, he said.

Computerworld Australia has contacted Facebook Australia and is awaiting comment.

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Social networking websites may face government regulation