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Is Facebook Crossing a Line in the Tech World?

August 15, 2014 by

In today’s world of technology, it’s not uncommon to know what’s going on in everyone’s lives all the time. We see it every day on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. People put their information out for everyone to see. We’re not bashing social media sites. They can be extremely useful to businesses who want more of a web presence as well as for people just trying to keep up with far-flung friends and family. One of the problems that’s popping up with social media sites and websites in general is that they want a lot of information from you – and they’re getting pretty sneaky about how they get it. Let’s talk about Facebook’s new “Messenger” app for smart devices.

How Could the Facebook Messenger App be Violating Your Privacy

Many people choose to use the Facebook app on their phone to stay in touch on the go. It’s very convenient, especially for people who don’t have a lot of time to spend on their computers. Facebook messaging is an easy way to communicate quickly, but before long, it could also be a way to totally violate your privacy. Check out what the app will be able to do once it becomes a mandatory piece of mobile Facebook messaging (which is actually very soon):

  • Change your network connectivity – This means that Facebook will be able to decide whether you’re connected to Wi-Fi or not. They’re essentially remotely accessing and messing with features on your phone by doing this.
  • Access your phone book and SMS – You’ll now be able to send SMS messages and place calls directly from your Facebook Messenger app. You can see what kinds of problems this could cause. It means that Facebook has complete access to your contacts and can send information on your behalf.
  • Record information when it feels like it – You read that right. The Facebook Messenger app can take pictures, videos, or audio at any time. This is a huge invasion of privacy. Knowing that an app can turn your camera on and off at will is a scary prospect.

These are just a few of the different liberties that Facebook Messenger will be taking with your phone once the app is downloaded. For a more in depth look at what Facebook Messenger is doing, please visit this website.

Cyber Security from Working Nets

In the meantime, it’s important to remember that the security for your small business relies on a working knowledge of mobile device information as well as information on different websites and scams. We recognize that you don’t always have that kind of time as a small business owner, which is why we offer cyber security and managed IT services. To talk to someone about cyber security for your small business, give us a call at (443) 992-7394. We’d be happy to assist you with your professional business networking needs.

You can also visit WorkingNets.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+

 

Filed Under: Review / Opinion Tagged With: , , , ,

Email from Someone You Know, with the Wrong Email Address? Blame Facebook

May 8, 2013 by

It seems to be happening more and more recently. People are receiving emails from people they know, but the email address doesn’t match. There is always a somewhat vague question associated with the email – “Have you seen this?” or “What do you think?” – and then a link.

Most people naturally assume that the person’s email account has been hacked. However, this is not the case. Notice that the name and email address do not match. If the account was hacked, the email would be coming from the correct address. Instead, these emails are spam. Somehow, someone accessed your friend or family member’s list of contacts and used this list to create emails that look like they came from someone trusted. This is known as Email Spoofing and is just another tactic used by spammers to mask the real origins of emails.

So how are these spammers finding your email address? It turns out that Facebook is the problem. Spammers were recently able to exploit a misconfiguration on Facebook that was fixed last week, according to Facebook.

“Recently, we discovered a single isolated campaign that was using compromised e-mail accounts to gain information scraped from Friend Lists due to a temporary misconfiguration on our site,” according to a statement from Facebook. “We have since enhanced our scraping protections to protect against this and other similar attacks and will continue to investigate this case further.”

Although spammers are no longer able to scrape new information from Facebook accounts, they still have access to the information obtained previously. This means that these spoof emails could continue for quite some time, until email providers are able to find the source of the spam and shut the spammers down.

The Moral of the Story: Be aware of vague messages and strange links. And if the “Reply To” email address doesn’t match the name, just delete the email. DO NOT OPEN THE LINK. In fact, never open a link you are unsure of.

If you have any questions, please contact Working Nets by calling (443) 992-7394 or visit WorkingNets.com today! You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Source:

Spam from “Friends” is Actually Result of Facebook Hole

Filed Under: IT Tips Baltimore Tagged With: , ,