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Anonymous, the hacker collective hacktivist group, is once again planning to target Facebook in an attack scheduled on Jan. 28 - at least, that's what a video uploaded to Youtube on Monday was claiming in the name of the hacker network.
"An online war has begun between Anonymous, the people and the government of the United States," the video begins. "While SOPA and PIPA may be postponed from Congress, this doesn't guarantee that our Internet rights will be upheld."
Following the U.S. government shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload on Friday, Anonymous attacked the U.S. Department of Justice's website, among others.
Monday's Youtube video calls on the American people to participate in the hack by downloading Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), the tool that was successfully used to target the U.S.' Department of Justice. LOIC crashes websites by sending thousands of information packets to their servers.
The video gives instructions for downloading and running the program, as well as a time - 12 a.m. on Jan. 28 - to launch the attack. No time zone, however, is distinguished.
"Would you like to become part of the greatest Internet protests and first official cyber war?" the video asks. "Operation Global Blackout is ongoing and everyone can be a part of it."
Facebook is one of the world's largest websites, operating through thousands of servers located across the world. In the video, Anonymous acknowledges the difficulties of attacking such a large site.
"While it is true that Facebook has at least 60,000 servers, it is still possible to bring it down," says the Anonymous voice. "Anonymous needs the help of the people."
YouTube commenters have raised an important question, "Why would Anonymous want to crash Facebook, after the site came out against SOPA and PIPA?"
The video essentially equates the privately-owned company with the U.S. government, with no explanation for the linkage. CNET postulates that Zuckerberg took too long to voice his opposition, landing his social network a spot on the potential targets list.
The global network of hacktivists had made this threat before, and promised to shut down the site on Nov. 5, 2011, over user privacy concerns. Ultimately, no attack was executed. And although there was a spam attack, it came out on a later date and was immediately neutralized by Facebook. The loosely-connected hacker network called the threat the work of peripheral members.
These days, having a relationship with someone on Facebook can mean as much as having one in "real life." So adding and subtracting people from your list is an emotional process that can often require some careful consideration, and possibly even some soul-searching. But why do Facebook users add some people, delete other people, and leave some off the list, in the first place?
The answer isn't actually quite shocking. According to a new study from NM Incite, a company owned by research firm Nielsen McKinsey, actually knowing someone in offline (real life) is the No. 1 reason users add someone to their friends list. Posting "offensive comments" is the primary factor in people hitting "delete." Surprised?
Here are a few more, perhaps more interesting, tidbits: The average Facebook user has 130 friends. Men use Facebook primarily for networking, and dating, while women use social media "for a creative outlet, for coupon/promos and to give positive feedback," all of which sound incredibly stereotypical — possibly even sexist. Connecting with family and friends is a big reason for using the social network, as is networking and other career-related activities, and entertainment. These are of course, very obvious.
I don't know if the majority of people using Facebook cares about how much Facebook earns for this absolutely free service. But for tech guys and online entrepreneurs like us (I'm one of them), I am always curious of how much this giant is earning.
According to Gawker.com, their source forwarded them an explicit look at Facebook's finances, and they say it's more staggering than they expected. A gusher of profits has left the social network with a cash hoard to rival established companies like 3M, eBay and Yahoo.
Facebook Profits from January 2011 to September 2011
Ownership: Employees 30%, Mark Zuckerberg 24%, Digital Sky Technologies 10%, Accel Partners 8% (had 10% but sold 2%), Dustin Moskowitz 6%, Eduardo Saverin 5%, Sean Parker 4%, Goldman Sachs clients 3%, Microsoft 1.3%, Peter Thiel and/or Clarium Capital 3%, Greylock Partners 1.4%, Meritech Capital Partners 1.6%, Chris Hughes 1%, Li Ka-shing 0.75%, Interpublic Group 0.50%, Goldman Sachs 0.8%
~Gawker's source; with knowledge of Facebook's finances.
Here's the explanation made by Ryan Tate of Gawker:
The big picture is this: Facebook's income is blowing up, and the company will likely come close to earning a full billion dollars in profit this year, more than double what it reportedly made a year ago and quadruple what it is believed to have made two years ago.
Beyond that, Facebook's billions in assets, including gobs of cash, constitute a war chest that can be used to buy other tech companies. That helps explain why the company raised $1.5 billion through Goldman Sachs in January, even though it was already very profitable by then. The company's growing bank balance puts it in a position to initiate more, and more substantial acquisitions, should it decide to do so.
The company's wallet might only be about a tenth of true giants like Apple and Google (see here), but it's the sort of hoard other tech companies spend decades accumulating. Adobe and Yahoo, for example, will eye Facebook's cash with envy. And the balance sheet is expected to balloon; Gawker's source echoed prior reports that Facebook is considering raising $10 billion at a $100 billion valuation in an initial public offering. That IPO is widely expected to come at some point next year.
Ryan added that it might seem obvious that Facebook would make huge amounts of money, particularly if you're a user. Media brands, particularly those we see several times a day, loom disproportionately in our minds. But having tons of users isn't the same thing as having tons of money. MySpace made only a few million dollars in profit when it was a very buzzy, popular site just acquired by News Corp. It's valuation was later decimated after it lost a key advertising deal. Google, meanwhile, is believed to have sunk huge resources into its new Google Plus social network, and profitability is by no means considered inevitable. The struggles of Facebook's competitors make the figures all the more impressive.
After suffering a deluge of porn and violent images earlier of November, users of social networking giant Facebook were hit yet again by another spam wave in the later weeks of last November, a Facebook enthusiast blog reported. The "Facebook Privacy and Security" blog posted screenshots of the spam attack, which targeted Facebook's Help Center Community Forum. "Facebook's Help Center does not deal with users directly, with non-interactive topics based on FAQ's and site changes being the only Facebook presence. Users wanting more help are encouraged to post questions in the Community Forum, but the generous Facebook users who provide assistance there have no ability to remove the spammers," it said. It noted clicking on each topic reveals dozens of posts filled with links, leading allegedly to official video streams of sporting events or movies. "The spammers suggest clicking on the links will provide free footage, and some posts contain the same link repeated 60-plus times to entice users to click on them," the blog post said.
Click to enlarge
As of 9:40 a.m. Manila time, the spam messages have yet to be taken down. "Genuine questions by Facebook users are shunted so far down the line that most are invisible," the blog noted. The blog suggested that Facebook create a team charged with making sure that the Help Center community forum is safe from spam attacks, so that users with genuine issues can get help. It also suggested that Facebook create a User Support team to manage the Help Center itself, so that questions can be answered directly by employees equipped to resolve issues efficiently and with expediency. A separate blog entry by computer security firm Sophos hinted the spammers could be taking advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, "when Facebook's security team may be more lightly staffed than normal." It also added, "Certainly it's embarrassing for the social networking website to have one of its own pages hit so significantly by spammers, when it has recently been lauding its achievements in the fight against Facebook spam."
There is a strong possibility that the Facebook spam attack that hit Facebook earlier November could be an attempt to put down Facebook, probably by Anon, another hacker group, or a competitor. I believe it will never stop until Facebook suffers considerable damage when it comes to its reputation. It may not be immediately felt by the social networking giant, but if it continues, users will eventually loss their trust on the company. To some spammers, the spam attack that took place earlier revealed that Facebook is not so invulnerable after all, like any other site, it also has its weaknesses, and that weakness gives other spammers and hackers the opportunity to break through.
People might have been wondering why the Anonymous hacktivist collective group "Anon" target the site most people came to love. Now, you may have an answer...
According to an Associated Press (AP) report, Facebook is settling with the Federal Trade Commission over charges it deceived consumers with its privacy settings to get people to share more personal information that they originally agreed to.
The FTC had charged that the social network told people they could keep the information they share private, then allowed it to be made public.
The charges go back to at least 2009, when Facebook changed its privacy settings so that information users may have deemed private, such as their list of friends, suddenly became viewable to everyone.
"They didn't warn users that this change was coming, or get approval in advance," the FTC said.
The FTC said the settlement requires Facebook to get people's approval before changing how it shares their data.
In a blog post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company has made a "bunch of mistakes." But he adds that this has often overshadowed the good work Facebook has done. He says Facebook has addressed many of the FTC's concerns already.
The settlement is similar to one Google agreed to earlier this year over its Buzz social networking service. Like Google, Facebook has agreed to obtain assessments of its privacy practices by independent, third-party auditors for the next 20 years.
Facebook isn't paying anything to settle the case, though future violations could lead to civil fines.
Zuckerberg said Facebook has created two new executive positions - a chief privacy officer of products and a chief privacy officer of policy as part of its response to the settlement.
This is great news as the move further expands user privacy protection, which users would benefit heavily upon.
This is just a recap of last week's news regarding Facebook porn attack. Facebook users had been facing awkward moments as graphic images of sexual and violent posts turn up in their feeds, but who's behind this attack? How did this "porn and gore" problem" manage to manifest on a site supposedly well protected?
It was reported that Facebook users who innocently clicked a tempting link inadvertently flooded their feeds with extremely graphic images of sex acts, mutilated animals and people, and even "Jesus porn," which were automatically posted for all their friends to see. Angry users took to Twitter to vent their disgust with "unstoppable torrents of hardcore pornography and gory, violent pictures," and threaten to decamp to Google+. Facebook acknowledged the issue, blaming it on a "coordinated spam attack," and said it was fixing the problem. But who's to blame for Facebook's flood of photos of dead dogs, Justin Bieber photoshopped into compromising positions, and naked octogenarians?
The week's editorial staff has 4 theories:
Theory 1: Blame Anonymous
What is anonymous? Who are they? Actually, there is little information about this group, but they are a group of hackers that practice online activism, they are what we call "hacktivist." Previously, they have threatened to destroy Facebook on November 5, however, this attack did not took place, as it was said that there was no signal from their leader, and that this attack hasn't been decided by all of its members, but by only a fraction of them. Their reason was "Facebook has been selling 'sensitive' user information to government agencies and giving secret access to security firms so that they can spy on Facebook users — as all data is stored on Facebook's servers and can be accessed at anytime." According to Kevin Parrish in Tom's Guide, Anonymous did threaten to attack Facebook using a powerful "Guy Fawkes virus" they developed. That virus purportedly takes control of your Facebook account and then infects your friends' accounts.
Anonymous threatens to destroy Facebook.
Anonymous announces operation to release Guy Fawkes virus on Facebook.
Anonymous had posted videos, "blatantly admitting to the Facebook attack." I buy it, says Adrian Chen in Gawker. "Spamming gore and porn is definitely one of Anonymous' trademark moves."
Theory 2: No other hackers are behind this
"I find it hard to believe that Anonymous would stoop to this," says Chris Matyszczyk in CNET News. And "indeed, Facebook told CNET it knows who is responsible" for this malicious, massive spam attack, and is readying legal action. Even if Anonymous is not officially behind this, says Emil Protalinski in ZDNet, it only takes a few "ex-members to pull something like this off."
Theory 3: Blame Facebook itself
The flood of violent and pornographic photos and video links is actually "the type of spam we've seen on Facebook before," says Protalinski, only now it's "coming in at a much faster pace." Even the link bait is the same — "Kim Kardashian, etc.," says Violet Blue in ZDNet. So what's changed? "Facebook's recent timeline upgrades" make that spam easier to propagate. And while grannies and impressionable teens are the ones being exposed to this thrash, the attack is "a bizarrely clever slap at the one thing Facebook is such an extreme hypocrite about": Adult content.
Additionally, note that Facebook Developers module can also serve as an entry point for such attacks. It has happened before, only that this is the big one.
Theory 4: Blame the gullible users
Hackers couldn't have done this without the help of easily fooled Facebook users. "My own Facebook news feed is image-spam free," says Kashmir Hill in Forbes. Why? My Facebook friends and I apparently aren't "unwise enough" to fall for the bait. Unless you click on links in messages like "OMG, I can't believe Kim did this" or "Wow, I can't believe you did this in this video. I LOLed," you and your friends won't "end up with naked grandmas and photoshopped teen idols in your feed."
This is true as most Facebook users who aren't familiar with spam usually bite the bait. Most especially if the bait is intriguing, eye-catching, or popular. The worst part on this is that once one of them caught the bait, it is shared on the news feed, and when friends see it, they also join in. Sometimes, they simply comment, which is still unwise, because by commenting, although they didn't fall in the trap, they could still risk their friends who would be able to see the link with the comment.
Guess what? Paypal has taken a giant leap forward as they unveil a Facebook app that let's Facebook users send money to their friends.
The app is simply titled "Send Money," it is straightforward as its name, making it more user friendly. With the app, you have the choice to send either an ecard with money or just money with no card. You select a card, choose a friend to send it to and then select how much money to send. Pretty easy!
"The Paypal and Facebook infrastructure have now merged," Paypal's Anuj Nayar says. "This is another way to personalize the act of giving money."
While there are several ways to pay with Paypal via Facebook, this is the first app to enable peer-to-peer payments via Facebook and Paypal. And because it's a peer-to-peer transaction, there is no transaction fee, though Paypal's regular limits and international fees still apply.
"Sending money, person to person, is free," Paypal Senior Product Marketing Manager JB Coutinho said. "If it's funded by a Paypal balance or linked to a bank account, it's free."
And while the primary aspect of the Send Money app is its enabling of transactions across the world's largest social network, the ecard aspect is being emphasized as well. Paypal was quick to point out that more than 500 million ecards are sent every year, and that's why Paypal is offering dozens of choices for everything from birthdays to congratulations.
The app will really be taking off. Users who spot a friend's birthday on Facebook can quickly use the app and send a card and some cash within a few minutes. The app is just as useful for things like lottery pools and reimbursing friends for lunch. It's a big step toward making social payments a reality.
On Thursday afternoon, the biggest social networking site, Facebook confirmed that coordinated spam attack has been sending a torrent of hardcore porn and gore into Facebook users' news feeds. Scattered reports say that images ranging from bestiality to graphic violence and dead babies to Justin Bieber have been taking over entire feeds for the past two days. Facebook, however, says that they have managed to contain the damage, and announced their next move to crush the hackers who caused it in court.
"During this spam attack users were tricked into pasting and executing malicious javascript in their browser URL bar causing them to unknowingly share this offensive content," Facebook's Andrew Noyes explained in a statement. "Our efforts have drastically limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are now in the process of investigating to identify those responsible."
So far bloggers have a good idea. Adrian Chen at Gawker was one of the first to cover the attack and suggested that the full-on assault of nasty images is definitely one of Anonymous' trademark moves, noting that the hacktivist announced an attack on Facebook with something called the "Guy Fawkes virus." ZDNet's privacy blogger Violet reiterated that the style of images is very much along the lines of 4Chan's /b, which is where the Anonymous began, and added that the content suggested a much more direct attack on Facebook — the company — rather than an attack on its users. Graham Cluley at the Sophos Naked Security blog stopped short of guessing who the perpetrators might be but noted that Facebook users were threatening to flee the site in scores, after seeing the images.
This incident eventually led to Facebook's bombardment with angry-sounding and negative comments, which seems to have shaken the company's integrity up a bit, since they too were composed of hardcore programmers themselves. Such an attack was just humiliating. The social network stayed quiet about the attack until Tuesday afternoon. They didn't reserve any hesitation in threatening to hunt down and throw the book at the spammers responsible for the gross flood of filth. "In addition to the engineering teams that build tools to block spam," Noyes said, "we also have a dedicated enforcement team that has already identified those responsible and is working with our legal team to ensure appropriate consequences follow."
Just last year, Facebook helped hunt down self-anointed "Spam King" Sanford Wallace in relation to three separate attacks on the social network. Having compromised 500,000 accounts and sent an estimated 27 million spam messages, Wallace earned himself various charges of fraud and intentional damage to a protected computer. A judge eventually ordered Wallace to pay Facebook a total $711 million in damages. Wallace, who is considered the inventor of spam, had already racked up hundred of millions of dollars in fees from other sites and is unlikely to pay the fine, though he faces 16 years in prison. Similar cases have yielded similarly jaw-dropping figures, including a $360.5 million judgment against spammer Philip Porembski earlier this year and an $873 million judgment in 2008 against Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital for spamming.
Surprise? Most people on Facebook likes to listen to music and they are commonly sharing it with their friends. Music discovery services such as Spotify, Rdio, Mog, Slacker, and Earbits are attracting significantly more users since Facebook's f6 Developer's Conference.
Now that music apps are on the Open Graph — and appear in the ticker — Facebook users have shared their listening activity more than 1.5 billion times with their friends, according to Facebook's Casey Maloney Rosales Muller in a blog post published Tuesday. (see here)
"Developers have started to demonstrate that when music is discovered through friends, people listen to more music and a wider variety of artists," he writes. "Our hypothesis was that integrating with the Open Graph would accelerate music discovery and make it more valuable part of the Facebook experience, while improving key metrics for our partners."
Those key metrics indeed improved, with some music developers seeing active users on their services more than double.
The results were:
Four million people have joined Spotify, a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal, since September 22. The service became available in the U.S. on July 14.
MOG, a paid subscription online music service and blog network, where users can listen to, read about, and discover music, saw a 246% growth from Facebook users since f8.
Rdio, an ad-free music subscription service available in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil, and is available as a website and also has clients for the iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone mobile devices, which can play streaming music or cache songs for offline playback, saw an increase of user registrations 30-fold because of the influence of Facebook.
Slacker, an interactive Internet radio service available in the US and Canada, where listeners can access the service on the web, through mobile apps on multiple smartphones as well as on the Slacker Personal Radio Players and other services, and allows users to create and share customized music stations, saw a more than 11x increase in monthly active users in the month following f8.
Earbits, a commercial-free music streaming service and music marketing platform, also experienced a 1,350% increase in the number of users becoming fans of the band they're listening to.
Other integrated music sites include Rhapsody, Soundcloud, Vevo, Songza, iHeartRadio and AudioVroom.
Facebook is anticipating growth for its music partners to continue to increase after it rolls out Timeline to the masses. Only a limited amount of Facebook users have enabled Timeline for the official public launch.
1/26/2012 08:16:00 PM
Anthony Yap
