Hack Blogspot

Image via CrunchBase Facebook , ever the victim of criticism when it comes to users' security, has announced a number of new features to help keep its social network more secure. The most significant addition is " one-time passwords " that are designed for you to use when you're out and about - handy if you're at an internet cafe or using a library-based computer. Or you're at your buddy's house and you know that they'll frape you if they get into your account. The password is sent to you via text, after you text a request (simply write "otp") to 32665. You'll get a unique password that will last for 20-minutes. You will need to log your mobile phone number with Facebook to do this - otherwise anyone would be able to get in, although no doubt people will now moan about Facebook collecting phone numbers.

Social networking sites are no more a hub to keep up with friends, chat and share music, photos or videos, but a place for cyber crimes. Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter have become the fastest growing social networking sites for teens and even kids to socialize with known and unknown faces. You must have read about teens posting explicit photos, sharing tales of drunken exploits and other negative behaviors. What's more, you might have also read stories of teens becoming victims of the sexual predators through the social networking sites. Let's have an insight of the most popular social networking site - Facebook.  As is evident, Facebook privacy controls are committed to protect the minors using Facebook - "Until their eighteenth birthday, minors don't have public search listings created for them, and the visibility of their information is limited to friends of friends and networks, even if they've chosen to make it available to everyone....

Recently, there is attack on Facebook from different angle. There are security concerns and there are unhappy blog posts that talks about Facebook's lack of interest in giving explanations for its complicated and constantly changing security policies. There is so much panic all over that it looks like that people are going to fund in an attempt to build another social media site. Although, Facebook is on the news for different wrong reasons, anti Facebook lobby is not strong enough to venture out for an alternative social media site because of lack of competitiveness. Say, for example, Orkut, despite of their best effort, could not establish their base in a significant way worldwide. The other communities do not have the strong potential to project themselves as a threat to Facebook. However, it is quite difficult to take over Facebook for the following reasons:

There is a wonderful graphic on the New York Times site showing how Facebook's privacy statement has got larger and larger to cover the growing holes in its privacy policy. The mapping isn't perfect: if it were, the declaration of Facebook's dedication to privacy would have to be of almost infinite size, since the default amount of privacy Facebook now offers is practically zero. When the site first started, very few people could join, and nothing became public, even to them, without the users' express permission. Now everyone can join and everything is public to almost all of them unless you make a determined effort to hide it. This effort has to be renewed every six months or so when Facebook revises its privacy policy to make it more opaque and less effective. There is a wonderfully graphic animation of the process at this site. If you decide it isn't worth it, Facebook turns out to be very difficult to leave. It is very easy to "deactivate" your acco...

  According to the revelation by Electronic Frontier Foundation last week, an FBI or Federal Agent can make friendship with you at Twitter or Facebook to gather more information about crime investigations. The report further described that fed agents pose as "friends" and get connected with ordinary citizens on Facebook and other sites in order to gather background information for crime investigation. This will help them find out suspects on the run. Now, the question arises about the legality of this type of activities. As per AP news stories, the middle aged lady Lori Drew posed as a teen boy on MySpace and harassed a 13-year-old neighborhood girl who later committed suicide. She was arrested for violating MySpace's terms of service to pose as someone that she is not and convicted in L.A. before a higher-court judge overturned the ruling. Fed prosecutors are making similar type of violation. Facebook has terms and conditions that makes it illegal if the user gives f...

Facebook has responded to a an apparently massive attempt to steal passwords from its users. "There's another spoofed email going around that claims to be from Facebook and asks you to open an attachment to receive a new password," read a post on the Facebook Security page. "This email is fake. Delete it from your inbox, and warn your friends." Facebook will never send users a new password in an attachment, the post says.