Smugging
Smugging is a slang term referring to the practice of so called ‘social media mugging’, where social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are accessed and updated without a user’s permission.
Etymology
The term ‘smugging’ was dubbed by a UK based credit card company Capital One, following research conducted as part of National Identity Fraud Prevention Week. The survey found that 60 million online social networks have been subject to unauthorised access in the last year, equivalent to 1.9 profiles smugged every second.
Usage
Smugging can take several different forms. The research highlighted that the most common results of smugging included inappropriate comments posted on social networking sites (43%), messages sent to contacts that were never authored (25%) and change of personal details (24%). The most smugging incidents are carried out by the victim’s friends (36%) or partners (21%) and one in ten victims say their ex-partner has logged into their account without prior consent.
Etymology
The term ‘smugging’ was dubbed by a UK based credit card company Capital One, following research conducted as part of National Identity Fraud Prevention Week. The survey found that 60 million online social networks have been subject to unauthorised access in the last year, equivalent to 1.9 profiles smugged every second.
Usage
Smugging can take several different forms. The research highlighted that the most common results of smugging included inappropriate comments posted on social networking sites (43%), messages sent to contacts that were never authored (25%) and change of personal details (24%). The most smugging incidents are carried out by the victim’s friends (36%) or partners (21%) and one in ten victims say their ex-partner has logged into their account without prior consent.
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