According to a recent report by the UK-based insurance company Legal & General, by sharing all kinds of information on social networking services like Facebook and Twitter, users can often make blatant revelations, which can be easily used by social engineers and cybercriminals.

The findings of the study - based on a survey of 2,092 social media users - show that users tend to share "far too much" information on social networking sites. In fact, nearly
13 percent of Facebook users and a massive 92 percent of Twitter users simply connect with anyone who asks, without even caring to know the person.

In addition, almost 38 percent of the people using social networking sites overtly post details about their holiday plans, and 33 percent post details of pertaining to their plans of spending a weekend away from the home!

Via its report, titled 'The Digital Criminal,' the key point that Legal & General intends underlining is that people who share information with 'strangers' on the social media sites, actually might be provide potential thieves and corporate criminals with vital, personal information.

Commenting on the dangers of information-sharing on social networking sites, reformed burglar Michael Fraser, who helped Legal & General prepare the report, remarked: "I call it 'Internet shopping for burglars.' It is incredibly easy to use social networking sites to target people, and then scope out more information!"