We all know that, to online marketers, we’re just the sum of our Facebook Wall posts and “Likes” – the ubiquitous, virtual “thumbs up” that we attach to all manner of online ephemera. But all those ironic comments and votes of approval may be revealing a lot more about us than we’re willing to share, according to a new report from researchers at the University of Cambridge and Microsoft Research in the UK. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), the researchers demonstrated that it is possible to use knowledge of an individual user’s “Likes” on Facebook to “automatically and accurately predict a range of highly sensitive personal attributes including: your age, and gender, you sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious and political views. The list of guessabl`e information goes on to include other less quantifiable characteristics like your personality traits, intelligence, happiness, your preference (or not) […]
Companies
Many Watering Holes, Targets In Hacks That Netted Facebook, Twitter and Apple
The attacks that compromised computer systems at Facebook, Twitter, Apple Corp. and Microsoft were part of a wide-ranging operation that relied on many “watering hole” web sites that attracted employees from prominent firms across the U.S., The Security Ledger has learned. The assailants responsible for the cyber attacks used at least two mobile application development sites as watering holes in addition to the one web site that has been disclosed: iPhoneDevSDK.com. Still other watering hole web sites used in the attack weren’t specific to mobile application developers – or even to software development. Still, they served almost identical attacks to employees of a wide range of target firms, across industries, including prominent auto manufacturers, U.S. government agencies and even a leading candy maker, according to sources with knowledge of the operation. More than a month after the attacks came to light, many details remain under tight wraps. Contacted by The Security […]
With $Pi Million At Stake, Chrome Withstands Hacker Assault
With $3.14159 million in prize money at stake, Google’s Chrome OS has withstood attempts to hack it in the company’s semi-annual Pwnium contest in Vancouver, a Google spokeswoman told The Security Ledger. In a statement Thursday, Google spokeswoman Jessica Kositz said that the company did not receive any winning entries during the day-long contest, but that the company is evaluating work that may qualify for a partial prize: a potentially infinite series of Google Wallet transfers in the amounts: $1 followed by $.50 followed by $.25 followed by $.125 and so on. OK – We made that last part up. Pwnium runs alongside the better known pwn2own contest at CanSecWest. This year, Google is providing funding for both contests. However, in 2012 the company pulled its support for pwn2own, objecting to the lack of a requirement of “responsible disclosure” – in which entrants must disclose the details of their exploits to the […]
Android Ecosystem: Still Fragmented, Insecure
The latest data from Google on use of its Android mobile operating systems highlights the challenge facing the company, with just over 16% of Android users running Versions 4.1 or 4.2 – the latest versions of the OS, dubbed “Jelly Bean” more than six months after its release. In fact, fully 44% of Android users are still running the “Gingerbread” release – Versions 2.3.3 through 2.3.7, a two year-old version of the operating system that has known security vulnerabilities. This according to data released by Google on the Android developer blog. The operating system data was culled from Android devices that accessed Google Play, the company’s mobile application marketplace, during a 14 day period that ended on March 4. The diversity of the Android ecosystem is a byproduct of Google’s go-to-market strategy for the mobile OS. Unlike Apple, which controls both the hardware and software for its iPhones and iPads […]
Evernote Denies Java Exploit Used In Hack
The online storage and productivity service Evernote said that it does not believe that the hack of its network that exposed information on 50 million users relied on an exploit of a Java vulnerability, as did recent attacks on Twitter and Facebook. In an e-mail response to questions from The Security Ledger about the hack, Ronda Scott, an Evernote spokeswoman, said that the firm does not believe that the hack used the Java exploit attributed to the other attacks, but said it was still investigating the incident. “It’s premature for us to comment on the methods used, the specific systems affected and/or origin and motivation,” she wrote. She said the company first became aware of the “unusual and potentially malicious” activity within its online service on February 28 and began notifying Evernote users of the need to reset their password the next day, March 1st. Scott maintained that Evernote hasn’t […]
