Locked Out of Facebook: When You Don't Recognize the Tagged Photos of All Your Facebook Friends

Yesterday I explained in the post "The Limitations of Facebook (Business) Pages" how Facebook was created to keep track of college friends. And it seems no matter how much Facebook expands, it still acts as if we are just connecting with people we know personally in our college classes or dorms.

After I published that post I apparently clicked on a video that might have had a virus. But I have Norton Internet Security and nothing got through.



I learned about this apparent virus from an email from Facebook's security team:

We have detected that your Facebook account is infected with a form of malware, or virus, called Koobface. You downloaded the virus after receiving a message from a friend, which invited you to view a video.

To restore your account, please log into Facebook and follow the instructions you see there. You can also learn more in our Help Center at: http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=k...

I went to my Facebook account, which asked me to run antivirus software. I ran Norton again and it confirmed there were no viruses. So I clicked the Facebook box stating that I had run the anti-virus software and no viruses were found.



Then I was asked to confirm that this was indeed my account by identifying people tagged in photos of my 921 friends!



I was shown random photos in sets of three of supposedly a specific person.

I twice failed, finally passing the confirmation test on my third try.

Here's how the test worked:



First, you get only a couple of skips. There are several names provided for each photo set and I tried guessing after I used up my skips.

Second, the photos are often confusing. There are three photos on each screen with some part of the photo highlighted. Sometimes a man and a woman are highlighted in different photos in the same set. In one set, two of the three pictures were of a bridge and a dressy high-heel shoe.

And, third, I ask you, would you be able to identify the photos (not even the official profile photos) of all of your friends on Facebook?

After passing the test on the third try, I was asked to create a new password before my account was unfrozen.

Even though my Facebook account is now unfrozen, I am publishing this post to help others because it is really a dumb idea to ask for account confirmation based on identifying people tagged in the photos of your friends. (And who is that bridge or shoe I ask you?)

Why not ask questions connected to private answers I have provided? Or some other identification system that I might have a good chance of doing successfully?



I'm all for security, but there has to be a better way of doing this. Let's give Facebook some ideas.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) and her business partner Yael K. Miller (@MillerMosaicLLC on Twitter) are committed to taking the mystery out of social media so that individuals and companies can utilize the power of social media to attract more business. Sign up now to get email notifications of social media blog posts at www.millermosaicllc.com/get-miller-mo...