Hack Blogspot

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently met the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP   The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, seems to think that Facebook will help to build David Cameron's Big Society: he tweeted yesterday that he had met Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg , who "had good ideas on improvement [sic] digital culture in policy making". This makes the Big Society look an idea even more vacuous than it already appears; but on reflection the minister is right to ask whether social networks will be important in the politics of the future. If they are, they won't be Facebook. Facebook is profoundly anti-democratic, and not just because it is a commercial operation. Facebook politics involve no real commitment any more than sending an email does. Nothing could more quickly tell you that a cause was stupid or irrelevant than the news that a Facebook group has been formed about it which ...

Candidates in some top political races are raising big sums of money using software that taps donors' social networks, an endeavor that lets the donors track their friends' donations with the zeal a fantasy baseball team owner uses to monitor player statistics. Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker in Massachusetts and two GOP Senate candidates, Marco Rubio in Florida and Rob Portman in Ohio, are among those using a software-based fundraising tool called BlueSwarm to successfully tap their social networks for campaign cash. The Democratic Governors Association also plans to use it. The software democratizes the fundraising process by letting average citizens not just donate, but raise money themselves from their Outlook contacts or their Facebook friends. The traditional political fundraising model relies on experienced bundlers to hustle money from a small set of well-connected donors. In contrast, BlueSwarm and similar software lets users work their friends...

Got a beef with the USDA? Want to send a message to the U.S. Postal Service? Do you “like” the National Nuclear Security Administration? Now you can let them (and all of your digital friends) know how you feel. The popular social networking site Facebook launched its “Congress on Facebook” page Thursday, which they bill as a one stop shop for members’ official pages. A “Facebook and Government” page connects citizens to the official pages of state, local, and federal agencies. The pages bill themselves as a source for sharing ways that the government can best use Facebook to communicate. More and more lawmakers and government agencies are using the popular site to reach constituents. And as an unintended bonus for journalists, we’ll now be able to disguise our non-work Facebook browsing with the click of a button. Thanks Facebook!

In cyberattack December last year Google had intruders stealing vital information from its computer. However, the Mountain View company didn't reveal the exact nature and extent of the theft that involved closely guarded company secret. According to the latest reports in NYT, one of the Google's password system that controls access by millions of users worldwide to almost all of the company's web services including the email and business applications. Google's program code named Gaia was attacked in a lightning raid taking less than two days last December. Actually, Gaia allows users to sign in using their password for a range of services compromises during a two-day attack last December. However, it's a relief for Gmail users that their passwords have not been stolen.Google initiated the security changes to its networks. The intrusion began when Google employee in China clicked on a link sent in an instant message, which took the visitor to a corrupted website....

A Chinese woman walks past the Google logo at the Google China headquarters in Beijing, China Google China headquarters in Beijing. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP Google has not renewed its licence to be an "internet content provider" in China, signalling the end of its ambition to provide search and other internet services inside the country's "Great Firewall" which filters out content deemed sensitive by its government.

Yesterday I have informed you about the Chinese government's stand point regarding Google. Google was asked either to maintain Chinese laws and regulations, or retreat. Some Chinese media even went on accusing Google of being linked to US intelligence agencies. Today Google has taken a massive step towards closing its business in China. It has shut down it's Chinese search site at Google.cn and redirecting visitors to Google.com.hk (Google Hong Kong) It is still unknown whether Google will still be operating in China with its R&D office and sales office. Loads of complains are reported from both the Chinese and American users, unhappy with the change being made. There are people in China, who want to access Google, but are also redirected to Google.com.hk. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing access to Google.com.hk.

A group calling itself "al-Qaida in Aceh (AH'-cheh)" has emerged in the Indonesian province where authorities have been cracking down on militant activity. Suspected militants in Aceh have been arrested and charged with planning terrorist attacks. The Indonesian government says two more suspected militants were arrested today but haven't been charged. The arrests, so far, total 16. In a statement posted on the blog hosting site WordPress.com, the new group claimed to be the target of the police crackdown. The group pledged to continue its jihad against what it calls "Zionist Jews and Christians and apostates."

The January 28 earthquake that rocked Central Aceh damaged at least 28 schools, forcing thousands of students to stay at home, a government official said. The natural disaster also caused local residents and government to suffer material losses totaling Rp73.784 billion (1US$=Rp9,450), the district government`s spokesperson, Windi Darsa, said here Tuesday. The temblor damaged at least 28 schools and 600 houses, he said.

Google Inc. said it has begun talks with the Chinese government about the company’s plan to stop censoring results from its search engine, after saying it may quit the country because of cyber attacks. Google will hold more talks with Chinese authorities “in the coming days,” it said in an e-mailed statement today.

Evaluating your company's security vulnerabilities is the first step toward preventing costly data losses that could compromise both information and your company's reputation. A so-called ethical hacker could help. It’s just a USB drive, casually dropped by an employee entrance, in the cafeteria or next to a cubicle. But what happens to that drive can tell worlds about your company’s IT security. An employee wanders by, picks up the drive and, out of curiosity, sticks it in the computer at his or her workstation. The drive contains infected code that compromises your system. Evaluating your company's security vulnerabilities is the first step toward plugging those gaps and preventing costly data losses and security breaches that could compromise both information and your company's reputation. For some small to mid-size businesses, evaluating security is a requirement of doing business with government agencies, credit card companies or health-related companies.