Beware The Pink Facebook Scam

Watch out for this scam on Facebook.  You might get invitations from some of your online friends to change your Facebook page from that boring blue color to the more exciting and invigorating pink, black or even red color.  Don’t get sucked in.  Each of the pages linked to in the invitation demands that you share it with others, write a nice comment about it, and complete a survey.  These surveys drive revenue to the scammer, they are paid for each one that someone fills out.

You are very unlikley to get the awesome color change that was advertised, and any friends that follow your recommendations won’t be very impressed when they don’t get it either.  Now, there are number of GreaseMonkey scripts which will work alongside the Firefox web browser to customise the look of Facebook and other sites, according to Graham Cluley.  Look them up if you are so inclined.

People who have fallen for this survey scam should scan their Facebook profiles for “shared” and “liked” content that they don’t want to endorse.

Facebook WebSense Partnership

Facebook and WebSense have partnered up to protect users from malicious code.  Now when a user clicks on a URL that has been posted in Facebook, the link will be sent to the Websense ThreatSeeker Cloud.  The ThreatSeeker Cloud  is an advanced malware identification and classification platform that will analyze the links in real time.  It provides Facebook users with Websense Web, and data security intelligence through a cloud-based delivery model.

According to Websense, the ThreatSeeker Cloud is powered by the ThreatSeeker Network and leverages a Web services API to easily integrate with business and consumer technology solutions. Unlike other security services that only check a Web sites reputation, the ThreatSeeker Cloud provides full content analysis and categorization, including Web and content classification, reputation and behavioral analysis, file and data analysis, and security filtering.

If the destination site is questionable, the Facebook user is presented with a warning page offering the choice to continue at their own risk, return to the previous page, or get more information on why the linked site was flagged as suspicious.

Facebook Facial Recognition

Facebook has quietly enabled facial recognition software on their social networking site, alarming some privacy advocates and users alike.  The site has covertly deployed the feature on millions of user accounts around the world, without giving any notice.  Unless you seek out and disable the feature, each time one of your Facebook friends uploads a photograph, Facebook will try to determine who is in the picture.  If it makes a positive ID, your friends will be urged to tag you, confirming your presence in the photograph.

That’s a nifty tool, and can be a real time saver for those that want to tag folks in all of their pictures for memory sake.  There are considerations though, if someone doesn’t want to be tagged, or have their presence at a function, event, particular venue, or meeting commonly known.  To some of us apparently, what happens in ____, stays in _____.

If you are concerned about your privacy, check your privacy settings to disable the feature.

The End Is NOT Near (For Facebook)

There is a rumor being spread like wildfire through the social Networking Internet.  Do not believe that Facebook is going to disappear on March 15th, taking all your photos and nifty status updates with it. 

This is a hoax.  The current landing place for clicking on the link does not appear to be malicious in the sense that it does not now deliver a malware payload, but it does take you to a “news story” by a publication that also tells us that Mike Tyson is a pigeon fancier, Michelle Obama is pregnant and alien spaceships are to attack earth in 2011.

Don’t blindly follow links, they are likely to deliver more than news.  This one is a hoax, but could very easily have been malicious.

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/01/09/facebook-will-not-end-on-march-15th-hoax-news-story-spreads-like-wildfire/

FaceBook & Divorce…

A recent survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers has found that one in five US divorces involve the social networking site Facebook.  Online flirting and photos found on Facebook are increasingly cited as proof of irreconcilable differences.  Many cases revolve around social media users who get back in touch with old flames.

A staggering 80% of divorce lawyers have also reported a spike in the number of cases that use social media for evidence of cheating!

http://news.yahoo.com/video/tech-15749651/23267136;_ylt=AhF6ZTDW4MeJNp7n5ido9sb0SpZ4

Keep your facebook clean, and stay thirsty my friends…

Facebook Email Announcement

Facebook was expected to launch a new email service this morning.  What the company announced was much bigger than email.  CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced “a single social inbox” for every kind of communication that people use, whether online, from their mobile phones, email, SMS, instant messaging and Facebook chat messages.  The company has built what he called a “modern messaging system” that is lightweight and easy to use, and offers a number of features that blend the usability of email and the benefits of other communications systems.

The 3 main features of the new service include:

• A seamless messaging system:  Handles email, SMS and IM on a facebook.com email address.
• A single conversation history:  Threaded replies add utility to email, so the new service will provide a combined conversation history, regardless of whether it comes via email, SMS, IM etc.
• A social in-box:  The default experience is all really high-signal, relevant, personal messages, reducing spam.

This offering is targeted directly at the younger generation, the ones that can’t stand email because it is too “formal” and takes “too long”.  Unfortunately, it reminds me a lot of Google’s Wave, the real-time collaboration tool that was designed to be a cross between IM, IRC chat and email. On August 4, 2010, Google announced the suspension of standalone Wave development, and Wave was rolled up into Gmail as an add-on. 

A solution without a clear problem and an uncertain, somewhat fickle audience.

SlashDot

Facebook, Fak-A/V, G-Mail Scams

Sophos sent out these little nuggets this week.  Looks like Apple and Facebook are getting some serious recognition, as a brand and as an attack vector…

iPad and iPhone 4 tester scams hit Facebook
It sounds too good to be true – Can you really get a free iPad 3G or iPhone 4 by signing up just to be a tester?  It’s just the latest scam spreading rapidly between compromised Facebook accounts in the last few days.  Discover more, and ensure that you and your employees are practising safe computing.

Malicious spammers launch major fake anti-virus attack
SophosLabs’s worldwide network of email-monitoring stations has seen a tidalwave of malicious messages being spammed out with an attachment that redirects users’ web browsers to a fake anti-virus attack.  Once installed, Fake-A/V is responsible for a wide array of additional malware infections, from spyware and keyloggers to full remote control and Denial of Service attack software installation.  The emails have subject names such as:

• Parking Permit and/or Benefit Card Order Receipt - <random number>
• You're invited to view my photos!
• Appointment Confirmation
• Your Bell e-bill is ready
• Your Vistaprint Order Is Confirmed
• Vistaprint Canadian Tax Invoice (<random number>)

Did Gmail make you look like a spammer last week?
How mortified would you feel if you found that you had been spamming someone through no fault of your own?  Well, up to 4 million Gmail users found out last week.  Find out how a problem with the Gmail service meant up to four million users were couldn’t stop the system sending out multiple messages.