The Great "Cyber" Con

Hackers and hacking have been much in the news recently - for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately. The most dramatic case, perhaps, was the suicide of Aaron Swartz. He was threatened with 35 years in prison, partly for this:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Reputation Management in the Age of Google

Here's one good reason why you might want to blog:

At the height of the cyber-abuse, Sue Scheff, a consultant to parents of troubled teens, would type her name in a Google search box and brace herself: Up would pop page after page of attack postings.

The solution? Fight negative Google hits with positive ones:

In December, Scheff turned to ReputationDefender, a year-old firm that promised to help her cleanse her virtual reputation. She no longer dreads a Google search on her name. Most of the links on the all-important first page are to her own Web site and a half-dozen others created by ReputationDefender to promote her work on teen pregnancy and teen depression.

Remember: if you don't manage your reputation online by participating, someone else might....