Facebook application developers selling user identity

facebook declare the data brokers have purchased an application which can identify social networking site user information from the developers. As a result, facebook application developer suspended for six months.

The announcement posted on the developer blog reveals some existing popular applications on facebook are transmitting the identity of users, one of which data on behalf of the user’s friends about 25 applications to advertising companies.

“We found a data broker who pay developers to ‘steal’ the identity of users,” he wrote in a blog facebook developers. “This is a violation of policy and this is very serious.”

After suspend the developers, facebook will be asking them to submit data that has been leaked to re-audited and requested a commitment that they will not repeat it.

Unfortunately, facebook does not identify who the data brokers that buy information from the application developer. However, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg had been agreed with Rapleaf, a data aggregation company based in San Francisco to erase all user data they get from facebook application developers.
[source twitteling]

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Don’t Lose Your Identity – Advice from a Wifi Hacker

Enlisting the help of an ‘ethical hacker’, Life Assistance company, CPP is working to raise awareness of the threat from ‘Wi-jacking’. Many of us use wifi networks to access the internet everyday, but are we doing all we can to make sure our personal information is safe when browsing or transacting online? CPP’s experiment covered six cities in the UK to gauge just how many insecure networks are out there.

Shown as a series of videos the Wi-jacking story begins with Jason Hart, senior vice president of CRYPTOCard, conducting an experiment that reveals the number of unprotected wifi networks open to fraud in central London. In research conducted by CPP to support the experiment in October, it was also revealed that nearly a quarter of private wireless networks have no password attached, making them immediately accessible to criminals.

To test the vulnerability of personal information further the second part of the story focuses on how identity fraud can occur should private details be compromised due to Wi-jacking. “Once a wifi network has been Wi-jacked, the risk of the identity theft increases”, explains CPP’s Identity Fraud expert, Michael Lynch.




In the third and final video, ‘Have you been wi-jacked? ’, Jason Hart simulates a malicious attack via a wifi network to show just how easily identity fraud can be committed with just a few pieces of personal information. The ethical hacker is given permission to gain access to a personal email account and describes just how quickly fraudulent activity could take place.

This series demonstrates just how risky accessing public and unprotected home wifi networks could be. Wi-jacking is just one in a very long list of how your identity could be stolen and result in identity fraud. If we’re all aware of the risks posed by this and other forms of ID fraud, we can begin to stamp out criminal activity.

For more information about Wi-jacking, take a look at CPP’s blog: http://blog.cpp.co.uk/.
[via Techie-buzz]

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iPhone 4G Facebook Email Is A Scam

Facebook has it’s own set of problems with privacy and scams alike, however, if you have been receiving emails about winning a iPhone 4 from Facebook, it is a scam.

If you receive an email which says "Hello, you won a iPhone 4G from Facebook", stay away from it. It is a scam and will not get you anywhere close to that device. The big problem with this scam is that it uses a familiar look and feel and is really very enticing to click on.

However, clicking on it will ensure that you are scammed. Malwarebytes blocks the website on my PC, so you should ensure to use a similar security software for your own PC. If you don’t have any, take a look at some of the Free Antivirus available or visit our Online Security section to learn how to protect your PC.

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Five Easy Steps to Create Super Strong Passwords

Passwords are your first and last line of defense. Most people do not seem to understand the importance of this tool. It’s only when their account is hacked, password is stolen or some security is compromised with, that they bother to exercise due care in dealing with passwords. Creating an ultra-strong password and not sharing it with world is all it takes to be safe on the web.
Here’s a guide that will help you create an easy-to-remember but strong password.

Essentials of a good password

1. Password should at least be 8-10 characters long.
2. Passwords should be a combination of numbers and letters.
3. Letters should be both capital and small.
4. At least one symbol or special character should be present.

Steps to create a strong password

Step 1. Select A Sentence: First step is to select an 8-10 words sentence. The important thing to keep in mind here is that the sentence should not be obvious or guessable. Any random sentence is good enough. Do not take guessable and/or short sentences like “I first name is XYZ“, etc. For the purpose of explaining, we will take the first line of this post as the sentence.

“Passwords are your first and last line of defense”.

Step 2. Trimming the words into characters: Reduce the words to their first letters. For example, “Passwords” can be reduced to “p“. Also, words like “are” can be changed to “r“, So our sentence gets reduced in the following manner:

Passwords [p] are [r] your [y] first [f] and[a] last[l] line[l] of[o] defense[d]

Now, the password looks like this: pryfallod
*
Step 3. Insert Numbers: As said before, a good password has both, numbers & alphabets. So to get numbers, we can do two things. Firstly, the word in Step 1 can be represented by numbers. In our example, “first” in the sentence can be represented by “1” instead of “f“. Secondly, letters in Step 2 can be converted into numbers which look similar. In the present case, the second last letter “o” can be changed to “0[zero]. Similarly you can substitute ” l” for “1“.

After this step, our password turns into: pry1all0d

Step 4. Capital & Small Cap Letters: Some of the letters in the password have to be capitalized. Now we arrive at the question, which ones? The first and last letter can be selected. Or, perhaps, those letters can be selected which are more prominent or more important. In our case, “passwords” and “defence” happen to be the most prominent words in the sentence. These words need not be at the end or start of the sentence.

Now our password looks like: Pry1all0D

Step 5. Special Characters or Symbols: Symbols lend and extra level of security to the password and make it nearly impossible to crack. One can randomly add a special character to the password or follow the same method that one did in Step 3 with numbers.

For instance, “l” can be replaced with “!” or “a” can be replaced with “@“. Or randomly substitute letters with symbols like changing “y” with “$“.

Final password: Pry1al!!d

key chain accessNow, this password is really difficult to crack. Looking at it, one may think that it would be really hard to memorize such a password. However, it isn’t that hard to remember it. In fact, by the time I complete writing the article, I myself have memorized the password. Moreover, even if you forget the password, you’ll always have the original sentence to help you recall the password.

Now that you have a good password, here are a couple of things you should take care of;

* You should never share password with somebody else, not even your best buddy or spouse.
* You should never write down your password anywhere, neither on a paper nor in notepad or document file.

Often, the best passwords lose their importance if any of the two tips above isn’t followed.

Take care and secure yourself.

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