Among those billion are 600,000 attempts to gain access illegally in order to steal photos and personal information belonging to members. Recently released by Facebook, these numbers show the magnitude of information theft or spamming attempted on social networking and other websites. Improving security measures is a constant concern (Emma Barnett, "Hackers Go after Facebook Sites 600,000 Times Every Day," The Telegraph, Oct. 29, 2011).

If you notice that your or a friend's account is sending out unusual messages, advertisements or videos to the account's entire friend list, don't click on these. They could jeopardize your page! Flag them as spam on the appropriate menu, send a message to the friend privately and let the person know that he or she needs to access the security menu and change the account's password.