social networking Web site

It took computer safety expert Linda Criddle only nine minutes to snag the phone number of a teenage girl in Nebraska who had posted just a little information about herself on a social networking Web site.

Criddle is a former Microsoft employee who specialized in online safety and is the author of a consumer-safety book, "Look Both Ways: Help Protect Your Family on the Internet."

She spoke at the Economic Crime Conference sponsored by the Utah Attorney General's Office on Thursday -- with a message that would send shivers down any parent's spine.

Two employees of a U.S. hospital have been fired for using their cell phone cameras to take photos of patients receiving treatment and then posting the images to a social networking Web site.

Sam Giammo, the director of public affairs at University of New Mexico Hospital, said Sunday the photos -- mainly close-ups of injuries being treated in the Albuquerque hospital's emergency room over the past few months -- were posted on an employee's private MySpace page.

Giammo said he's never heard of a similar incident at the University of New Mexico Hospital or any other hospital.