Anonymous Facebook Attack: Could the Social Network’s Addicted Users Survive?
August 11, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
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Facebook permeates many aspects of our lives. It can be used for professional or personal reasons, to look at photos of a grandchild or find out what an old college buddy is currently doing.
The loss of Facebook, a network that contains some of our most personal details and photos, is scary for some users.
”It’s scary that a hacking group would have the power and resources to hack into a website that has become such an influential part of American culture,” said Kenny Voshell, an employee at DuPont. “It makes you wonder what other kinds of potentially terrorist acts they’re capable of, and if any company is safe from being hacked.”
There has been a mix of information surrounding “Operation Facebook,” as initially a purported leader of Anonymous denied that the group had any interest in shutting down Facebook.
The Twitter account, AnonOPs, which acts as one of the primary communication tools for the group, initially stated that the group was not involved with a potential Facebook shutdown.
But a day later the account changed its tune, admitting that a splinter group of Anonymous was planning an attack on Facebook yet saying the entire group was not committed or involved in the project.
If it is able to succeed, the impact of its hack could be to raise additional awareness on the dangers of hacking. Despite all of the previous attacks getting some news coverage, now 750 million users would be painfully aware of what these hacking groups are capable of.
“I wouldn’t close my Facebook account or even try to replace it with other social media, but it certainly shows the potential hackers have to affect a lot of people’s everyday lives,” Voshell said.
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Facebookers Furious as Social Network Publishes Phone Numbers
August 11, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Facebookers Furious as Social Network Publishes Phone Numbers
Once solely concerned with social-networking supremacy, Facebook’s push to lead the mobile communication market has now grabbed users’ attention and national headlines twice in as many days. First, the company unveiled its new mobile messenger app, which received rave reviews from early adopters on Wednesday.
Today, however, attention has turned to Facebook’s phone-book-syncing protocol—and the responses are, to put it mildly, anything but rave.
The social network finds itself in the midst of yet another privacy scandal after reports went viral today that phone numbers in users’ mobile phones have been published and may be visible to others on Facebook. Users are complaining that the company has managed to pluck the full names and phone numbers of contacts who don’t even have a Facebook account—individuals who likely have never provided Facebook with any contact information.
The following message has flooded the network as angry users copied and pasted the warning onto their profiles and those of their friends:
“All the phone numbers in your phone are now published on Facebook! Go to the top right of the screen, click on Account, then click on Edit Friends, go left on the screen and click on Contacts. Then go to the right-hand side and click on “visit page” to remove this display option. Please repost this on your Status, so your friends can remove their numbers and thus prevent abuse if they do not want them published.”
The company has responded to concerns on its fan page, dismissing “rumors” that the contacts are visible to users and adding that the feature has long existed on the site. “The phone numbers listed there were either added by your friends themselves and made visible to you, or you have previously synced your phone contacts with Facebook.”
In the comments section below the company’s post, users didn’t appear reassured. Comments ranged from “Keep numbers personal” and “Get your act together” to “Soooo glad I have Google+.” Several users wrote that they did not approve the phone sync and yet still found the numbers posted in their contacts list.
If you’re curious about the status of your own phone book, login to Facebook and follow the steps in the warning message. Let us know what you find in the comments below, and share your thoughts on the company’s privacy policies.
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John Harrison is a freelance writer for Portfolio.com.