Social Networks

Will Reddit Get Its Man? New Clues Come Fast As FBI Releases Boston Suspect Photos

The collective energies of a lot of pissed off people were given focus on Thursday, after the FBI released photos and a video of two men – identified as Suspect #1 and #2 – who were identified as the only suspects in the horrific bombing of The Boston Marathon on Monday. Within hours of releasing the photos, new clues to the identities of the suspects emerged on web sites like Reddit. Astute viewers flocked to the popular website Reddit.com to crowd source clues, with a special area or “subreddit,” dubbed “findbostonbombers” created to collect tips and analysis from the sea of fervent users. Their efforts paid off in short order, as contributors identified the brand of cap worn by both suspects (the white cap worn by Suspect #2 is believed to be by Ralph Lauren, while the black cap worn by Suspect #1 is believed to be a Bridgestone golf cap […]

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Anti-Social: Popular WordPress Sharing Plugin Linked To Payday Loan Spam

A popular plug-in for sharing blog content on social networks was discovered to have hidden code that was injecting WordPress blogs with links to phony Pay Day Loan offers and other spam, according to the firm Sucuri. The plug-in, named Social-Media-Widget (SMW) was compromised with malicious code 12 days ago, in concert with an update of the widget. The new version of the plug-in contained a hidden call to a remote PHP script that inserted “Pay Day Loan” spam text and links into WordPress web sites running the plugin. The goal was to infect as many web sites as possible with text that would increase the web reputation and visibility of a web site run by the spammers, according to the post on Tuesday, by Daniel Cid, Sucuri’s CTO. SMW is among the most popular add-ons for Wordpess sites. It allows bloggers who use WordPress to configure sharing buttons that will […]

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That Facebook Account Hijack Vulnerability Is Still Dangerous. Here’s Why.

Did you hear about that really dangerous security hole that allows attackers to manipulate third party Facebook applications to hack into your Facebook account? Skype and Dropbox both said they fixed a web site redirection vulnerability that both companies fixed before the vulnerability was disclosed? Great news, right? Right. Except for the fact that the same vulnerability may exist in hundreds, or even thousands of other Facebook applications and still provides a ready pathway into Facebook accounts, according to Nir Goldshlager, the Israeli security researcher who discovered the vulnerability. Goldshlager described the vulnerability, which he named the “UnFix Bug” on his web site in a post on Wednesday, after discussing details of the hole with the online publication TechCrunch. It is just the latest in a string of security holes he has discovered in OAuth, an open authentication standard used by social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The vulnerability allows a […]

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EverNote Latest Site Hacked In Coordinated Attack

The online personal and business productivity service Evernote.com said on Saturday that it is the victim of a hack that exposed encrypted user password information, forcing password resets across a broad swath of the service’s 50 million registered users. The Redwood City, California-based firm revealed in a blog post that its internal security team discovered “suspicious activity on the Evernote network” that “appears to have been a coordinated attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote Service.” The company said it sent password reset messages to its users as a “precaution” but didn’t believe that stored information in users’ accounts or payment information had been exposed. The hack is just the latest of a prominent online firm. In recent weeks, Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft have all reported compromises of their internal networks. Those intrusions were linked to attacks aimed at developers and relied on exploits of previously unknown “zero day” […]

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Craigslist Founder Has Twitter Account Hacked

Craig Newmark, the founder of the massively popular online bulletin board Craigslist, had his Twitter account compromised and used to distribute malicious links, according to a post on Thursday. Newmark, the 60 year-old software developer who launched Craigslist as an online information sharing site in the 1990s, posted three messages through his Twitter account late Thursday after he received messages from some of his 63,000 followers that they were receiving spam messages via Twitter Direct Messages. “Twitter account compromised? Just received this from you: “Have you seen this pic of you? lol,”  wrote follower Tristan Justras (@tristanjutras). The post included a shortened link. Newmark’s first post, around 3:00pm Pacific Time Thursday, suggested he initially believed that the problems were due to his Twitter client. “Folks, thanks! I see the problem now, and I’m guessing it has to do with Twitter user tokens from other Twitter clients I’ve used,” Newmark wrote. […]

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