background preloader

Security

Facebook Twitter

Passwords

Climatechange. Https. This Message will Self-Destruct: New Tool Makes Online Postings. On the internet, data lives forever. Once you post something to the web, you see, you simply can't take it back. Many people have had to learn this lesson the hard way, unfortunately, after discovering that the "delete" button doesn't really work to delete something from the internet as a whole. The embarrassing missive lives on and on, in the web service's archives, in Google's cache, and eventually in the Internet Archive itself. That may be about to change, though, thanks to a new tool created by researchers at the University of Washington. Called "Vanish," the system places a time limit on any message posted to any web service through a web browser.

How Vanish Works Perhaps the most amazing thing about Vanish is that it's capable of erasing messages posted practically anywhere on the web. To accomplish this, the messages sent with Vanish are encrypted with a secret key, never revealed to the end user. Try it Now Image credit: flickr user jamesjyu. CDT | Center for Democracy & Technology. Facebook’s New Privacy Settings: Here’s What Changed. Facebook today announced a revamp of its user privacy controls, responding to widespread public criticism following its f8 conference product launches with systematic changes that it said came out of weeks of nights-and-weekend work by its top engineers and designers.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the release a “modern privacy system” that reflects what the site has become and incorporates feedback from users. “We made a lot of changes at the same time, and a lot of what we were trying to do we didn’t communicate that well,” said Zuckerberg. He acknowledged users felt there were so many controls that they were overwhelmed and didn’t feel comfortable sharing.

Here are the most important changes, which will roll out to users shortly, heralded by a notice at the top of their home pages: The main privacy settings page lets users toggle between sharing various types of content with everyone, friends of friends, and friends only. You can now opt out completely of the Facebook platform. 4 tools to help reclaim Facebook privacy – SciTechBlog - CNN.com.

To some users and tech writers, it appears Facebook won’t let anything stand in the way of its quest for World Wide Web domination. Maybe not even its users’ privacy. As most Facebook users already know, the social networking site has yet again updated its privacy settings. And the “guide to privacy on Facebook” can seem more like an encyclopedia than a guide. Some users have become so confused that they've chosen to leave the site entirely.

But, thanks to a few independent tools floating around in cyberspace, it's gotten a bit easier to navigate the maze of Facebook settings. ReclaimPrivacy, a donation-based project, recently launched a tool that scans your Facebook page’s privacy settings. SaveFace, which is free to install, automatically sets users’ settings - contact information, search settings, friends, tags, connections, personal information and posts - to “friends only.” TinEye is not specifically for privacy conscious Facebook users. Know of any tools we missed? 5 Essential Facebook Privacy Tips. Adam Rosenberg is the Online Community Manager at Salsa Labs. Most recently, he was the New Media Manager at the Center for Democracy & Technology where his work focused on Internet privacy, data protection, cybersecurity and open government issues.

The latest changes to Facebook have seen their fair share of criticism, with many users examining more closely the definition of “public vs. private.” Some users have been turned off enough by Facebook's envelope pushing when it comes to privacy to go so far as to contemplate a mass Facebook exodus. Whether or not the changes become the final blow to Facebook's tenuous relationship with privacy remains to be seen. However, protecting your privacy is important on any social network, so while you're still on Facebook, here are a few important privacy tips to keep in mind as you navigate the site's newest incarnation. 1.

The list function seems to be one of the most underrated privacy tools on Facebook. To create and edit lists: To use lists: 2. Why Facebook Changed Its Privacy Strategy. We reported yesterday that Facebook is aiming to get people to be more public on the site and that anyone who hasn't changed their privacy settings will now see it "recommended" that their status updates, photos etc. be exposed to the whole web. I had a unique opportunity to speak to Barry Schnitt, Director of Corporate Communications and Public Policy at Facebook and quite a frank guy, at length this afternoon about Facebook's privacy policy changes. Schnitt said "your understanding is basically correct," but disagreed with the negative light I saw the change in. Becoming less private and more public is "a change just like it was a change in 2006 when Facebook became more than just people from colleges," Schnitt told us.

"Facebook is changing," he said, "and so is the world changing and we are going to innovate to meet user requests. " The State of the Transition See also: Zuckerberg Changes His Own Privacy Settings Why The Change? Why are things changing at Facebook? That means ads. The Day Facebook Changed Forever: Messages to Become Public By D. One of the most anticipated days in the history of social networking site Facebook has finally come: the company announced today that it has begun making status messages, photos and videos visible to the public at large by default instead of being visible only to a user's approved friends.

UPDATE: After we wrote this post, Facebook HQ emailed to tell us that the first wave of users who get this feature will have their messages made public by default because their profiles were already marked as public, but that when they open the feature up to subsequent users - those users will have default privacy settings that match their pre-existing profile privacy settings. Unfortunately, in our tests so far (see our screencast) - we haven't been able to successfully change our default message settings back to friends-only, it stays stuck on public. So there are some kinks to work out here. Your Publisher Privacy will stay at whatever you have set as the default. Remember the News Feed? Robots FTW. FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Di. Alison Driscoll is an interactive copywriter and social media consultant who specializes in .

She authors a blog at alisondriscoll.com. provides users with the opportunity to share just about everything: photos, links, videos, virtual gifts and random musings in the form of status updates. Under the guise of “being social” and “maintaining transparency,” Facebook fiends post anything and everything about themselves on this now omnipresent social network. This begs the question, how much is too much? Younger generations have no problem sharing nearly every detail of their lives, but is publicly posting all this minutiae really such a good idea? Knowing what you had for lunch is hardly ever going to be interesting, unless you’re a chef, and seeing your drunken antics very well may get you fired. So where do we draw the line, and for whom?

The beauty of Facebook’s many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. Segmenting your friends into lists 1. 2. 3. 4. Downloads: Close'n Forget Removes Browser Tracks of the Sit. Twitter Worm Could Take Over Your Computer (in Theory) - ReadWri. Before everyone panics, let's get one thing clear: the new Twitter worm is only a proof-of-concept devised by computer security researchers at Secure Science - it is not out in the wild. That said, its very existence should raise some questions about the state of security at Twitter - something that's more important than ever given how rapidly the service is becoming mainstream.

This latest security concern involves an attack, similar to the clickjacking incident from last month, that takes advantage of a web programming error on Twitter's support site. The result of the attack would force users to post unwanted messages to their Twitter stream. If those messages were combined with malicious code, "this could even be used to take control of a victim's computer," says Lance James, chief scientist of Secure Science.

The Potential Threat The attack, posted online here, first displays a warning message and then posts Secure Science's test code "@XSSExploits I just got owned! " Privacy: Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. How to make the most of social networking on Facebook - USATODAY. By Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY So you've finally enlisted in Facebook. Only now you're wondering if you ought to just duck. In the last few days, Facebook faced a firestorm over controversial changes to its "terms of use. " That's the legalese tacked onto the bottom of most websites. Even before the latest ruckus, users of Facebook have always had to think about how to present information. The service just celebrated its fifth birthday, with membership swelling past 175 million. It all comes at you in a news feed that can quickly clutter your home screen with uploaded videos, pictures, links to stories and blog posts: Don't be shocked when a decade-old photo someone tagged of you surfaces.

You can tweak what flows in by clicking "Options for News Feed" at the bottom of your main Facebook page. Interestingly, there's no simple way to search for old wall posts. There are 52,000 applications on Facebook that let you do everything from throw snowballs to test your trivia skills. 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. We’ve updated this guide with the new privacy settings just launched by Facebook. You can get the new Facebook privacy guide now.

Everyday I receive an email from somebody about how their account was hacked, how a friend tagged them in the photo and they want a way to avoid it, as well as a number of other complications related to their privacy on Facebook. Over the weekend one individual contacted me to let me know that he would be removing me as a friend from Facebook because he was “going to make a shift with my Facebook use – going to just mostly family stuff.” Perhaps he was tired of receiving my status updates or perhaps he didn’t want me to view photos from his personal life. 1.

I can’t tell you how many people are not aware of their friend lists. There are a few very important things to remember about friend lists: I’ll touch on each of the things listed above in more detail later. Using friend lists is also extremely useful for organizing your friends if you have a lot of them. Twitter Phishing: Protecting Yourself | Technosailor.com. This article will take approx 2 minutes to read. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Or at least, a funny thing happened over the weekend with regards to Twitter, spam and phishing (from Chris Pirillo). I really had no plans to outline my thoughts on the scam, because it is already being covered ad nauseum. However, I feel like I have to anyway. The scam operates like any typical Windows worm and begins with a DM from a victimized Twitter follower. That direct message contains a link to a malicious (and unnamed) domain that screams “password stealing”. This is a very important concept to get. The malicious site then proceeds to send DMs with the infectious link on behalf of the user.

Folks, Twitter is like email. There are several problems here, as there are with most internet security problems. Weak Password Brings 'Happiness' to Twitter Hacker | T. An 18-year-old hacker with a history of celebrity pranks has admitted to Monday’s hijacking of multiple high-profile Twitter accounts, including President-Elect Barack Obama’s, and the official feed for Fox News. The hacker, who goes by the handle GMZ, told Threat Level on Tuesday he gained entry to Twitter’s administrative control panel by pointing an automated password-guesser at a popular user’s account. The user turned out to be a member of Twitter’s support staff, who’d chosen the weak password "happiness. " Cracking the site was easy, because Twitter allowed an unlimited number of rapid-fire log-in attempts. "I feel it’s another case of administrators not putting forth effort toward one of the most obvious and overused security flaws," he wrote in an IM interview.

"I’m sure they find it difficult to admit it. " The hacker identified himself only as an 18-year-old student on the East Coast. He said he decided not to use other hacked accounts personally. Free Online Password Manager. Featured Download: Darik's Boot and Nuke is the Nuclear Opt.