Wed
Aug
18
Facebook is still the happy social networking community where either you like a status update or simply don’t comment. (Note: There are a small percentage of folks who wish they could go against the grain and hit a “dislike” button that would live adjacent to that happy, thumbs-up “like” button.)
There was a ‘dislike’ button designed for the all the Facebook-family Grinches out there. But, alas, that turned out to be a scam, according to a recent New York Times Gadgetwise blog post from Riva Richmond. To download the “dislike” button, a user would have to complete a survey in which they unknowingly agree to recurring cell phone charges.
According to Richmond’s blog post:
The hook comes in a status update from a friend reading “I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!” or “Get the official DISLIKE button NOW!” which includes a link to a rogue Facebook application.
Installing the button gives the scammers permission to access your public information, post to your wall and retrieve your data at any time they like – in addition to the recurring cell phone charges. Buyers beware!
So, all of you “dislike” folks out there, you still have to keep mum about your disapproval of a status update – or you could end up shelling out some cash for voicing your dissatisfaction.
- Rashidah
Tags
- Facebook - Rashidah Ferguson - rashidah - facebook - scams - security
Thu
Aug
6
Hackers attack Twitter, Facebook also slows down
In case you haven’t noticed, pretty much the entire Internet broke today. Hackers attacked Twitter, which was down since 9 a.m. this morning and is still working only intermittently, several hours later. Facebook also came under attack, and although it seems to be working for some users, others are unable to update their statuses or post items to their walls.
The Associated Press’ article about the outage snidely mentions that “for Twitter users, the outage meant no tweeting about lunch plans, the weather or the fact that Twitter is down.” (As we’ve previously seen, the AP tends not to be a fan of social media.) Except that some of us were actually prevented from getting a bunch of our work done today. How frustrating.
—Alyssa
Tags
- Alyssa - security - Twitter - Facebook - social networks
Tue
Aug
4
The Marines have banned personnel from using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube on its network. They argue that social networks expose them to unnecessary risk. Part of the risk is exposing sensitive information to adversaries and the other concerns revolve around network security. While I understand the risks, I wonder if they couldn’t be mitigated with strong filters and usage codes for Marines. Facebook and other social web technologies can be great ways for service people overseas to stay in touch. This move could have an impact on morale. (Mashable and Wired both reported on the story.)
-Tom
Tags
- Tom - security - politics
Mon
May
11
Is Google Under Scrutiny for Antitrust Violation?
TechCrunch is reporting that Christine Varney, Obama’s antitrust boss at the Department of Justice, is looking to make a big case - potentially against Google.
I think the article’s author, Erick Schonfeld, hits the nail on the head with his analysis arguing against Department of Justice action: “The problem with antitrust lawsuits, particularly in fast-moving industries such as technology, is they take so long to go through the courts that by the time a ruling is handed down the market has moved on (see Microsoft). The market will always do a better job undermining monopolies than the Justice department will.”
-Tom
Tags
- Tom - Google - security - government - politics
Sun
Jan
4
Twitter was hit by a phishing scam this weekend, perpetuated by fraudulent e-mails and direct messages. As described on the Twitter blog:
The email says something like, “hey! check out this funny blog about you…” and provides a link. That link redirects to a site masquerading as the Twitter front page. Look closely at the URL field, if it has another domain besides Twitter but looks exactly like our page then it’s a fraud and you should not sign in….Some folks may have clicked the link and given their Twitter password to the phishing site. In those cases it would be possible for the phisher to send out direct messages on your behalf which could trick your followers.
I’m not sure how widespread the scam was, since the Twitter folks seemed to catch it pretty quickly, but I didn’t receive any suspicious e-mails or DMs. I actually feel sort of left out.
—Alyssa
Tags
- Alyssa - Twitter - security
