The Next Big Crime Wave

The savvy social networker realizes that there are ways to keep Facebook postings private, said Jeff Ingalsbe, who runs the Center for Cyber Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy. Nevertheless even those who are then-versed in the company's byzantine privacy policies have a hard time staying ahead of the game.

The mobile world

"Especially in the mobile world, it becomes more difficult," Ingalsbe said. "The Samsung Galaxy, the iPhone, you set up Facebook on these devices and you're automatically logged in, all the time. It adds another dimension of confusion. You can say, 'That wasn't me, somebody must have picked up my phone and messed with it.' "

"Facebook, Twitter, they put their stuff on servers all over the place," Ingalsbe said. "Those servers are dynamically moving, based on the volume of traffic. Cloud computing makes it more difficult for a forensic investigation. It's much more useful as an investigative tool."

It's as well more useful as social networkers trend younger. They tend not to worry about hiding personal information from the world, Ingalsbe said. "They're much more willing to share information, and to assume the risks are low. They've grown up with this; they don't think it's a big deal."

As time marches on, said Tyler Willis, vice president at the social-media company Unified, so will continue the "arms race" between cybercops and social network-using thugs. And to some extent, it will all be out in the open.