How to screw others in a Social Network: A Dangerous Demonstration

Disclaimer:
This is just for educational purposes. I want to make the reader feel how vulnerable we are while posting in Social Networks. I want to demonstrate with the technology available today, how damn easy it is to screw others. Blogger is not responsible for any actions that the reader may be inspired to do after reading this. This supersedes all previous notices.


You will need:

• Firefox/Chrome
• Firebug
• Some basic HTML knowledge(which you can gather from W3Schools or Tizag)
• Tor Browser (so that it is not traceable to you)
• Paint/Photoshop/GIMP

N.B. Click on the screenshots to enlarge.

1. Your target must preferably be in your friend list. But that is not necessary. All you need is a publicly shared post. Here, for demonstration purposes, I select a page. You can also do this in other networking sites like Twitter.

 2. Open a post in that page/profile.

3. Right click on the body of the post and select 'Inspect Element with Firebug'.

 4. After Firebug opens, the HTML part of the body of the post would be highlighted. Right click there and select 'Edit HTML'.

5. Write whatever you want. Notice the change in the main content.

Point to note here is that you can also use the same technique, and a bit to HTML knowledge, to change the thumbnail picture of the person who has posted this. And of course, changing the name is equally easy.

6. Take a screenshot and save it. Make sure to blur any parts which may reveal your identity like the tabs that are opened or a visible chat list.

7. Close the browser and run Tor. After the successful connection with its servers, it opens a portable firefox window. The purpose is to hide your IP, and Onion Routing is the best way to do it.

8. Open https://mail.google.com and make a new email. Don't be idiotic enough to use your actual name/email/any other detail.

9. Send the screenshot to the required person.

And just in case someone does it to you, show the concerned person this post.