Bigmouthmedia search engine news: privacy-security

Digital prankster hacks celebrity Twitter accounts

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Popular Micro-blogging site Twitter has had to temporarily suspend the accounts of several celebrities including Barack Obama, Britney Spears and CNN anchorman Rich Sanchez. The accounts were suspended due to a prank by an unknown hacker who hijacked the accounts with comical tweets.

CNN anchorman Rich Sanchez was among the targeted after sending out a feed which read "I am high on crack right now, might not be coming into work today." Fox News was also attacked after breaking the misspelled news; "Bill O'Riley is gay." Also making the hilarious headlines was Britney Spears who sent out a tweet saying "Hi Yall! Brit Brit here, just wanted to update you on the size of my..." - well, you get the picture.

Although Twitter admits that 33 accounts were hacked, we are still waiting in suspense to see who the other 29 'victims' were.

So how did it happen? According to a Twitter blog post, the entertaining tweets were orchestrated by someone who "hacked into some of the tools our support team uses to help people do things like edit the email address associated with their Twitter account when they can't remember or get stuck."

All of this is apparently unrelated to a separate security issue which is concerning Twitter users at the moment. Over the weekend, 'civilian' accounts were targeted messages offering free iPhones with the messages redirecting Twitter users to a fake login site. Twitter has since advised many users to change their passwords.

So who's the Twitter Trickster? Techcrunch who have put a lot of research into the story believe the trail leads back to the website digitalgangster.com, where a hacker known as 'gmz' is known to lurk. While tweets about Spear's anatomy are difficult to track, messages from the Facebook and Obama Twitter accounts redirected users to an affiliate site. In theory, Twitter only need to find out who owns the bank accounts in order to find the identity of the internet farceur.

In reality, very little real damage was done to those attacked. Rich Sanchez presumably made it into work and if Britney really wants to update us about her lower regions, she will do so when she next gets out of a taxi. The story is a nice diversion from the more worrying phishing attacks Twitter is failing to defend itself against.

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Google and Baidu fail China's content standards

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT

In an attempt to "purify the Internet's cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors," Chinese authorities have started a campaign to rid the Internet of what they deem to be unhealthy content.

The crackdown primarily focuses on online pornography, and officials have said that China believes it has a duty to protect public morality.

The officials have also published a list of 19 websites that have failed to remove questionable material.

Among the websites are Google and China's top search-engine Baidu. The authorities noted that both Google and Baidu have failed to take "efficient" actions after being asked to remove content from their results.

The Associated Press reports that seven government agencies are working together on the campaign. A statement released by the Chinese government said that violators will be punished, but did not give any specifics as to how the top search-engines could face penalty.

"If we find any violation, we will take action. So far, I haven't seen any examples of violations," said a Google representative in China, who noted that the site does not have any pornographic content. Baidu has not yet released a statement.

China's rapidly growing Internet population was thought to have reached 137 million in 2007 and continues to grow. In the same year, Chinese Communist Party Chief Hu Jintao announced his vow to "purify" the Internet.

China has a long history of Internet censorship, with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security holding very strict control over what Chinese citizens can access online. Censored websites include those that belong to outlawed groups, sites with pro-democratic content and sites that are deemed "subversive" - including the BBC website.

In August 2007, police in China created cartoon depictions of the Chinese Internet police that are displayed to users every 30 minutes as they browse online. The cartoons are meant to remind users to avoid any illegal online content

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2009: The Year of the Intelligent Cyber Criminal

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

It may be the festive season, filled with kindness and good will - but the closing days of 2008 are also a time to reflect over the year past, its trends and the risks that come from the not-so kind and less good willed. While we bigmouths don't want to put a damper on the festivities, it's important to be aware of 2008's alter ego as 'the year of the intelligent cyber criminal'.

Every day, many internet users find their inboxes besieged with spam e-mails. Most of them are obviously junk. Won a million in the Swedish lottery? Ever heard of it? We're not really stupid enough to fall for that one, are we?

This candid, cyber-savvy arrogance has created a new arena for the professional cyber criminal - someone continually looking for new, smarter ways to penetrate your computer. One of the most well-known of these techniques is the 'Scareware Scam'.

According to digital security company Finjan, up to five million people have fallen victim to scareware scams. Sneaky criminal companies operate the scam by advertising so-called 'free virus checks' on popular websites. The unsuspecting user downloads the software which tells them that their computer is infected with spyware, viruses or pornography.

However, these results are false - but as many as five million people have purchased the 'remedy software' needed to fix the supposed problem.

Such cyber scams have made the headlines thanks to an investigation from the Federal Trade Commission. Focussing its enquiries on two major companies, the FTC has begun a crackdown on scareware scams. Between them, the two companies have made millions with genuine-sounding security products such as WinFixer, DriveCleaner and XP Antivirus. Until now, these companies have avoided courtroom proceedings..

Of course, in the cat and mouse game that is cyber-regulation, the good guys get their day too. Sadly though, it really wasn't much longer. For a brief period in November spam levels fell to 64.1 billion messages per day, before rising back up to record numbers close to 100 billion.

The prediction for 2009 is gloomy. Finjan believes that the IT job-layoffs - results of the economic crisis - could lead to a dramatic increase in digital crime. With thousands of unemployed programmers in need of an income, Finjan believes many will use their expertise to earn money through online crime tactics.

The main concern is not the number of potential hackers entering the playing field, but that we are all getting so tech-savvy and spam-shrewd that it will take even more cunning and manipulative tricks to really work on us. With the possibility of thousands of intelligent IT professionals entering the digital crime scene, scams are going to get more and more elaborate and we might once again be as spam- gullible as we were when spam e-mails first hit the scene.

Happy holidays - be vigilant!

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Microsoft to issue quick fix for Internet Explorer

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Microsoft has announced the issue of an emergency patch to fix a security flaw believed to have affected as many as 10,000 websites.

Internet Explorer users were being urged by experts to switch to a rival browser such as Firefox or Safari until the problem, which could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal passwords, was fixed. Microsoft urged people to be vigilant while it investigated and prepared the emergency patch to resolve the issue.

Upon the discovery of the vulnerability, senior security advisor at Trend Micro, Rick Ferguson commented to the BBC: "What we've seen from the exploit so far is it stealing game passwords, but it's inevitable that it will adapted by criminals." He added, "It's just a question of modifying the payload the trojan installs."

Richard Cox, chief information officer of anti-spam body The Spamhaus Project echoed Trend Micro's warning to the BBC.

"It won't be long before someone reverse engineers this exploit for more fraudulent purposes. Trend Micro's advice (of switching to an alternative web browser) is very sensible," he said.

Microsoft assured users of Internet Explorer that switching browsers would not be necessary, stating that the vulnerability would only affect 0.02% of internet sites and that a solution to the problem was forthcoming.

Some experts are reading the decision by Microsoft to issue the emergency patch as quickly as possible as evidence of the potential danger of the flaw, also noting that it is relatively unusual for Microsoft to issue what is being called an "out of band" security bulletin. With other browsers such as Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Apple's Safari system are not vulnerable to the current flaw, experts have reinforced the opinion that Explorer users should switch browsers until the problem is fixed.

But Graham Cluley, senior consultant with security firm Sophos, said no browser is exempt from problems.

"Firefox has issued patches and Apple has too. Whichever browser you are using you have to keep it up to date," he told the BBC.

"People have to be prepared and willing to install security updates. That nagging screen asking if you want to update should not be ignored," he said.

Microsoft is due to make the emergency patch available from 1800 GMT on December 17th.

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Google rebuffs anti-net neutrality claims

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

As Google's status of corporate giant balloons with every year that goes by, its unofficial motto - "don't be evil" - has come under increasing scrutiny. From privacy groups that claim the ubiquitous search engine has too much access to our personal information to the individuals requesting that their faces are blurred from Google Street View, its image as a company with the public's best interests in mind has certainly taken a few knocks lately.

A new report in today's Wall Street Journal, which states that Google may be seeking preferential treatment from internet providers, could further exacerbate negative attention towards the firm. Allegedly, Google has approached major cable and phone companies who provide internet services with a proposal to create a "fast-lane" for its own content - a strategy that differs significantly from its established stance in favour of net neutrality: i.e., that all internet traffic should be treated equally.

In a post on its Public Policy blog, Richard Whitt - Google's Washington Telecom and Media Counsel - was quick to defend the accusations. He explains that Google has offered to collocate caching servers within broadband providers' own facilities, helping them reduce bandwidth costs and reduce the number of times content has to be transmitted. Essentially, he says, this brings content closer to end users, improving page load times - something that Google claims to have always been in favour of, as long as it is carried out on a "non-discriminatory basis".

He adds: "Despite the hyperbolic tone and confused claims in Monday's Journal story, I want to be perfectly clear about one thing: Google remains strongly committed to the principle of net neutrality, and we will continue to work with policymakers in the years ahead to keep the Internet free and open."

Regardless of how exaggerated the claims made by the Wall Street Journal against Google might be, the story once more brings to attention the search engine's growing might and its ability to transform the way in which we view content online. Regulators are certain to be maintaining a close watch on the company as it grows ever-larger; its recent abandonment of a landmark paid search deal with Yahoo! due to regulator concerns is just one example.

And as Barack Obama - a dedicated net neutrality enthusiast - heads to the White House in the next few weeks, it's likely that tech lobbyists and advisers may encourage the new president to keep a close eye on the search engine's moves. After all, Google may have been one of Obama's largest corporate benefactors during this year's election, but that's not to mean that it will be beyond the bounds of the new Democratic administration's jurisdiction.

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Google and Obama: a match made in heaven?

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Google's formidable achievements during its short ten year life span haven't escaped the attention of anyone in the tech world. But it's easy to forget that eight of those years took place under the George W. Bush presidency - an administration that hit an unprecedented low approval rating of 20 per cent at the weekend, according to a CBS survey.

So it's maybe no surprise that Google employees were the largest contributors to Barack Obama's election campaign in California and the third largest corporate donors nationally - money that was instrumental in his eventual victory, announced this morning. In fact, PC Magazine's Sascha Segan writes that Obama's victory is also Google's victory - not least because of the president-elect's open attitude towards the internet.

Let's start from the beginning: Obama has always had a strong presence on the web, a strategy that many have seen as the essence of his attraction to younger voters. Retrospectively considering Obama's campaign, Mashable points out that he outpaced his Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards by almost 40,000 views on YouTube's political channel, YouChoose. What's more, his significant primary wins in February led to the most successful viral video in history, in which Black Eyed Peas artist will.i.am remixed his acceptance speeches.

On Google itself, Obama steadily remained a more popular search term than his Republican rival, John McCain, although the commotion surrounding the announcement of Sarah Palin as the latter's vice presidential candidate did overtake searches for the Democrat from mid-August to late September.

Although any internet-savvy voter in the US - and any American politics fiend globally - will remember 2008 as the first truly digital election, Google could well be the main beneficiary of the impending Obama presidency in the online world. In Obama's statement of his technology goals, he declares the need for "a Google-like search engine that will allow ordinary Americans to track federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and loans online."

Perhaps it was this not-so-subtle nod to Google's achievements that led to Google employees donating a total of $701,099 nationally towards his campaign. It might also have something to do with the fact that Eric Schmidt - Google's CEO - was one of the Democrat's prominent technology advisers, along with two Federal Communications Commission (FCC) heads.

In essence, Obama's openness towards net neutrality and his pledge to deploy next generation broadband speed across the United States is likely to be of great benefit to the search giant. Coincidentally or not, this joint desire was given a leg up yesterday when the FCC ruled that 'white spaces', unlicensed parts of US TV airwaves, can be used to deliver broadband services - a move that's opposed by TV networks.

But there are other elements of Obama's tech policy on which Google's primary rivals, Microsoft and Yahoo!, are certain to capitalise too - namely ensuring competitive markets and safeguarding privacy. In particular, Microsoft (who donated around $714,000 to Obama's campaign) has voiced several complaints this year over the search engine's growing online presence, especially in relation to Google and Yahoo!'s paid search advertising deal.

In addition, as privacy groups continue to lambast Google and pursue their grievances in court, Obama could find himself stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to his approach to the company's increasing dominance.

How Obama's technology policies will play out as his attention is focussed on the current economic crisis, however, is yet to be seen. Right now, he's probably too busy relishing in the current president's words of wisdom: "Congratulations and go enjoy yourself."

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Google raises eyebrows with fresh privacy concerns

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Every day, Google sites are accessed by millions of users all searching for information, checking their e-mails and scanning news headlines. It's impossible to deny that Google has developed an impressive list of high quality products that are not only incredibly useful, slightly addictive but, best of all, free. Originally a search engine, the Google homepage has become more like a computer desktop, with chat, word processing and calendar features all taunting Microsoft, as Google tries to overtake the original software giant. And as the Google empire grows, regulators, watchdogs and everyday civilians all grow a little bit more wary of Google's advances.

In the last few months, concerns have been focussed on the pending Google-Yahoo deal. As regulators mull over monopoly concerns and the financial implications on the industry, a new wave of uneasiness is mounting over future privacy issues. How much information would Google have access to if it were to sign a deal with Yahoo? As these thoughts are chewed over by industry watchdogs and privacy advocates, questions are revived about how much information Google already does know.

For one watchdog group in California, the launch of Google's new Chrome browser was the final straw. Writing to the Google directors, the group stressed that Google does not provide users with "appropriate transparency and control", raising particular concerns over the Google navigation bar whose search feature relays data to Google datacenters even before the user clicks enter.

Such concerns are not limited to Google Chrome but also to its analytics software, which has been integrated into millions of websites across the net. German newsite Spiegel.de recently decided to remove Google Analytics from its website in an attempt to protect its readers. The German newsgroup warned readers that even people who don't use Google or products like Gmail or Maps still have data gathered on them as so many companies use the analytics software on their websites.

Far from the Spiegel headquarters in the lakeside town of Molfsee, townsfolk have grown anxious over a fleet of Opel Astras all sporting the Google logo. Naturally, Molfsee isn't the only town that has grown tired of Google zooming in on them. Across both sides of the Atlantic, more and more complaints are being launched over Google street cars, with huge concerns raised over privacy rights as it attempts to expand its StreetView service.

Of course, Google has been gathering data on users for years and it's likely that many of the people complaining about Google street cars have been using Google search for years. But the fact that these street cars are so visible has driven home the fact of Google's sheer size and power. All of this raises one major question: knowing that Google knows so much, do people now stop using Google's useful, addictive and free products? Or do they just continue on as normal and trust Google to adhere to its unofficial motto and not be evil? Until its competitors come up with search and online services that are as developed and advanced, the latter seems most likely.

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Facebook now more popular than BBC, but users beware of addiction

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT

According to new figures released by web monitoring firm comScore, social networking website Facebook now attracts more UK web surfers than the BBC website.

The findings come hot on the heels of revelations that using social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace could be beneficial for businesses. The research by comScore shows Facebook to be the fifth most visited site in the UK, with an estimated 18.4 million unique UK visitors over the age of 15 in September 2008. In comparison, the BBC website saw 18.2 million unique British visitors.

Only search engine giant Google - along with market rivals Microsoft and Yahoo, and internet auction website eBay - attracted more traffic from UK web surfers, with Google heading the list with 31.8 million unique visitors. The figures, which are based on data from comScore's World Metrix audience measurement service, do not take into account visitor traffic from internet cafes and mobile devices.

The full list is as follows:

Google: 31.8m
Microsoft Sites: 28.8m
Yahoo! sites: 21
eBay: 19.8
Facebook: 18.4m
BBC: 18.2m
AOL LLC: 16.8m
Wikimedia Foundation Sites: 13.6m
Ask Network: 13.6m
Amazon: 11.4m

Despite recent and ongoing concerns over privacy, Facebook, founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, has quickly established itself as the most popular worldwide social networking service, based on monthly unique visitors. It overtook its main market rival, MySpace, in April this year, although MySpace still enjoys superiority over Facebook in the United States.

But while Facebook continues to grow in popularity, one leading therapist has claimed that as many as one in ten women are becoming dangerously addicted to the social networking site and could need psychiatric help. The claim, made by addictions expert and lead therapist at London's The Priory clinic, David Smallwood, suggests that many users of the website suffer from 'friendship addiction', which sees users try to acquire as many Facebook contacts as possible.

In an interview with Metro.co.uk, Mr Smallwood said: "The problem with Facebook is that it's all about acquisition and this is an addictive process.

"Acquisition of friends is like any other fix but it's competitive - you judge yourself by how many friends you have online."

Mr Smallwood also warned that there is potential for people to feel severely damaged or isolated when their friend requests are rejected, and that anyone with drug, alcohol or shopping addictions should steer clear of Facebook and other, similar websites.

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Internet giants attempt to shush free speech activists

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT

A new voluntary code of ethics for internet companies is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Leading the development of internet free speech is the US Centre for Democracy and Technology, several human rights groups and, of course, some of the main technology companies who are going to be directly affected. The code, which has been two years in the making, hopes to offer guidelines to digital companies doing business in nations, like China, where internet censorship is commonplace.

The focus of the code has mainly been on internet search giants Yahoo! and Google, both of which have come under scrutiny from free speech activists and the media for their co-operation with authorities in China. Both companies hope that the code will give them guidelines that will satisfy both their critics in Western Europe and the Chinese authorities who will dictate their business activities in the Celestial Empire.

Criticism towards Google has mainly been directed at its censorship of Google China's search results on topics relating to democracy and Chinese history, most notably searches on Tiananmen Square. Although much of the noise came from free speech activists, Yahoo's involvement has been more publicised by human rights activists. The majority of attention has been focused on Yahoo's co-operation with the Chinese government, giving them access to many of their users' e-mail accounts. Following the handover of these accounts, many Chinese citizens were jailed for their divergent political opinions. Battered by the publicity nightmare, Yahoo! went on to sell a large portion of its Chinese operations to Alibaba in October 2005.

Ironically, it's been very difficult to get a better idea of how many technology companies are integrating these ethical guidelines. However, companies like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have not publically shown any support. These companies were the focus of the New York Times expose in 2005, in which each were shown to be working alongside the Bush administration to monitor millions of Americans all believed to be "communicating with people connected with terrorism".

Although the ethics code is a brave step forward, it has not received complete support from some human rights groups. Morton Sklaw, executive director for the World Organisation of Human Rights USA, says the code has too many loopholes that can be abused by the internet companies in order to progress their business interests. The code also fails to regulate hardware companies who sell internet filtering systems to China, a major parallel issue within the digital human rights debate.

The finalisation of this internet and business ethics code couldn't have come at a worse time for eBay-owned VOIP service, Skype. Last month Canadian researchers discovered that its Chinese partner, Tom Online, was filtering messages containing politically sensitive words and storing them for future inspection.

Although the code has received praise from human rights groups and free speech activists, most will admit that it is only a small step towards solving a huge problem. While technology companies will be given better advice to guide their actions, these guidelines are said to be vague at best and, at the end of the day, does not guarantee user protection.

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Bank turmoil fuels phishing boom

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning saying phishing gangs were using the current global financial crisis to extract valuable information from consumers.

The news comes as a UK banking group reveals that phishing attacks were up more 180% in a year.

The FTC said that the current rapid changes in the banking world, where many institutions suddenly had new owners, could only help fraudsters keen to steal login and other personal details.

The FTC said in statement, "Scammers are taking advantage of upheavals in the financial marketplace to confuse customers into parting with valuable personal information."

It said it expected fraudsters to pose as the new owners of banks or the federal agencies charged with oversight of struggling institutions.

The FTC urged customers to be wary and not to reply to e-mail messages or pop ups that ask for personal or financial information even if they appeared to come from a bank. Customers should also scrutinise bank and credit card statements for unauthorised withdrawals or transfers.

Secure Computing the leading enterprise security software provider, said its October spam report showed that many of the banks and other financial institutions caught up in the turmoil were topping its list of phishing targets.

Chase, Wachovia and Bank of America were among the most popular targets for scammers. Secure Computing said that it expected British banks to also prove popular in the coming weeks as changes and mergers are completed.

In its second annual report, the All Parliamentary Group on ID Fraud said tighter credit lending rules would lead to more attempts to get at existing bank accounts.

"There is no longer a guarantee that they will get credit by applying assuming another person's identity, so they are instead tapping into accounts that already exist," read the report.

Fraud figures released in early October by the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs), which represents UK banks, showed a steep rise in the number of phishing attacks even before the turmoil in the banking world began.

From January to June 2008 phishing attacks rose by 186% on the same period in 2007, it said. In total it saw more than 20,682 phishing incidents during that six month period.

With the global financial crisis looking to get worse before it gets better, banking customers in the US and UK are being encouraged to be extra vigilant when using online financial services.

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