There is a MAJOR outage of Blackberry devices underway. Devices are still working as a phone (but who uses a BB for that!). The outage is said to be spread throughout North America in all carriers. No official word yet in terms of what happened or when service will be restored, but, it’s reasonable to believe that full restoration will take some time once the problem is fixed, as the messages that are at a stand still now start flowing again (all trying at the same time).
If you google “research in motion outage” (without the quotes), there’s plenty of stories about the problem as subscribers start realize their device is a brick right now. If you consider the all the on-call professionals right now that rely on such messaging, this lends some credibility to those that believe that mobile devices leave much to be desired for “mission critical” applications. Messaging is a long way off from being a “guaranteed” service.
The more friends, connections, etc., that you have in Social mediums, the more diverse the collective interests. This is especially true in Facebook.
The internet has definitely changed the way that we all are "exposed" to different cultures and the diversity between them; even amongst those that live close to us.
One of the ways that this is expressed in Facebook is through "Groups" or "Pages". People create and join groups for all sorts of reasons/interests.
A connection that I have on Facebook recently joined a group relative to the interest surrounding a popular desire to have "dislike button" functionality returned to Facebook. As someone interested in computer security, this got me to thinking. It immediately reeked of malware to me. So I did a little digging.
Currently on Facebook, there are over 600 groups associated with a theme of a "dislike button" and one page. The most popular group reads like all other viral themes… “Forward this to everyone you know.” The name is socially engineered to make the reader think that they have the secret to where you can find the functionality. It includes "instructions" on “how to get” the functionality is carefully worded to make a user believe that this is legitimate functionality. These instructions insist that you have to follow their directions "carefully" under the threat that the measures will not work and you will have to repeat the steps. The first step is to invite all your friends. The next step is to become a fan of the group and then suggest that group to all your friends, and then you add a "plug-in" to your browser, which only works on Firefox.
The author of the page is careful to include a disclaimer. It is 23 lines BELOW the last line of the instructions, which will obstruct the view from most readers. The disclaimer indicates that "we" do not belong to or work for Facebook.
Another one is a "petition" for a dislike button. In this one, there is no suggestion to do anything other than post on the wall and provides a link to what appears to be a suggestion page for Facebook.
So, what is at risk here? There are valid concerns about the privacy of members and their friends; especially in an ever changing privacy policy of online services and social sites. Third party installations (like browser plug-in) can pretty much do as they choose. Many tell the user what they are going to do, but who reads all that? Others are evasive as to their intentions (forced advertising, browser redirection/hijacking, and data interception) and can even continue those intentions when you are not on the target site.
At the very least, there are load considerations to take into account. While some can argue that social sites like Facebook should be able to handle bulk traffic, think about the load placed on the network when over 2,000,000 users (the membership of one of the groups) sends the invite (twice) to 130 people (the average count of friends a user has according to Facebook). If you think about it, everyone has experienced lag and timeouts while posting or otherwise interacting with Facebook.
Testing legitimacy: Who created the page/group and what is the call to action? Is it to post your thoughts, or is the suggestion that you download something? Will it even work on your computer or browser choice? Most postings require a web site link for the entity. What is at that link? Is it even accessible? How long has the entity been in existence? Treat this like a decision about your banking institution. Too many treat the impulse to click on a link or join a group/page like the decision about what movie to rent this weekend.
The problem is that with many of these, it is very difficult for the common user to know what it is that he/she is joining or clicking on. And many just don’t have the patience to find out. This blurs the line of privacy protection and online security. In most cases, it simply safer to not join/click-on these groups, pages or links to keep from installing something that may compromise your security, your privacy, or keep from spamming your contacts. The use of the phrase "scam" is way too overused. But in the case of Facebook, it is clearly not within the intention of the Facebook developers. In one of the videos that I have seen on the use of a dislike add-on, the browser clearly indicates that the action is deemed unsafe (1:16 minute into the demonstration before the demonstrator clicks off the warning).
Now is the time of year that email Holiday Greeting Cards start arriving in mailboxes. In many cases, these “eCards” can be malicious and troublesome to PCs (and company networks). This year, malicious Holiday eCards are expected to have greater payloads and impact than previous ones.
Every effort should be made to keep them at bay. This should include updated virus definitions. ISPs and online services like gmail, AOL, Comcast do a pretty good job with spam and viruses but malware authors are constantly reengineering their attacks. Some early ones may make it through.
Should you receive one, please do not click on any links within it; even if you suspect that a real person (friend, family, vendor) sent it. It is best to simply delete it.
Search engines are coming soon to Facebook. This will make Facebook posts searchable in real time. It is very important that you be sure that your PRIVACY SETTINGS are exactly the way you want. One of those options includes PUBLIC SEARCH RESULTS for search engines. What makes this more troubling is that hackers, malware authors and spammers have become experts in search engines.
OSG: Bits, Bytes and Packets 