If you haven’t JUST NOW re-set your Facebook password, don’t open that e-mail!

Mashable is reporting that there is yet another trojan horse making the rounds, appearing to be an e-mail confirmation that your Facebook password has been reset:

…This one – known as Bredolab – masks itself as a ‘Password Reset Confirmation Email,’ appears to come from Facebook, and attaches a file that purports to contain a new password.

That file is actually a trojan horse that will download a host of nasty files from the Web and infect your computer with them…Continue reading Facebook Password Reset Confirmation Email Contains Virus [ALERT] >>

 

Not News: There’s no such thing as privacy on the web. (Google and Bing are ‘officially’ searching Twitter and Facebook, now.)

Google and Bing have been searching Facebook and Twitter for a long time, in case you hadn’t discovered this by doing routine vanity searches for yourself on Google, Bing, and 123People, etc..

But the search engines this week are announcing new deals and technology that make these searches easier. For more details on that, follow FHK’s Web 2.0 Reader.

Bottom Line

• If you’re using the social networks primarily to keep in touch with friends and family, and want to continue believing that you have some privacy on the web, stay off of Twitter, and use the “just friends” settings on Facebook. According to Facebook, it’s default settings are not supposed to be searchable…yet…I would recommend choosing your own settings.
• However, if you’re using the social networks primarily for online profile management, and WANT your posts, etc., to be viewed in the search engines, you’re in luck. This is happening automatically on Twitter, and on Facebook, you just need to adjust your settings to “everyone” under the privacy features.

 

What Happened to Jenn Sierra on Facebook?

(Updated 10/18/09)

Greetings, fellow WebWarriors!

This is just a quick update on that Facebook database problem that I wrote about earlier in the week.

Facebook claims the problem has been fixed, but the problems with my account are continuing. I’m having a very difficult time accessing my account, my friends list, my pages, my groups, and my FB e-mails. It’s obvious there’s an attack of some sort going on – I don’t believe I’m the target of the attack, but instead that my account is being used somehow. I also don’t believe it’s because of my conservative activism, per se, but instead I believe it’s related to my support for the JIDF on the web and on Facebook.

I can’t get a response from Facebook on this after NUMEROUS tries, and I’m not comfortable with not understanding what is happening to the account – I have no way of knowing if the account is secure, and whether or not my friends’ accounts are being affected by this. So, I have deactivated the “Jenn Sierra” user ID for now.

Ft. Hard Knox is still going strong, and the FHK Facebook Group will not be affected by this. We have several great administrators who will continue to keep this going, and I’m still working in and supporting the group – just “from behind the scenes.”

-Jenn

P.S. – Several people have asked for more details on exactly what is happening to my account, to see if their own experiences are similar. Basically when I’m logged in, my account is acting the same way home computers act when the modem has been hijacked…like the account has a “mind of its own.” It works sporadically, but simply accessing any page (or the account itself) usually takes several tries. Plus, my entire friends list (of nearly 3,000 people) keeps disappearing.

Can’t Talk ON Facebook? Just Talk ABOUT it.

UPDATE 10/14/09 6PM CENTRAL: Nope…still down:

Account Unavailable

Your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience.

---

That describes much of my week…more than a week, actually. Since October 3rd, due to a reported apparent database failure, approximately 150K of Facebook’s 300M users have been experiencing serious access issues. “Lucky” me – I was one of the 150K.

Some folks decided to vent on Twitter, and reported not being able to access their accounts at all. I was able to get on sporadically. On some days, I could access my home page, but not my friends’ feeds. On other days I had to try several times to just get on to my own feed – after being told several times that my account was down for site maintenance and to try again in a few hours. For minutes at a time on some days, I was able to access everything. Occassionally my entire friends list (nearly 3,000 people) simply disappeared; other times, it appeared that certain friends had “un-friended” me, but then the problem would clear up in a couple of hours. This has gone on for over 10 days, now.

It’s been quite exasperating. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, Facebook is a tiny blip on the radar, but it has become my primary spot for networking with fellow conservative activists. The most recent reports as of today are that the problem has cleared up, and Facebook is not being specific (probably for security reasons) about exactly what was wrong. Hopefully, after over 10 days, the fix is permanent.

Family + Facebook = Aaawkward!

Yet another of life’s little lessons in “be careful what you put online!”

Graph Jam

 

UPDATE: No, that’s not you in the video, and don’t click on that link! (Twitter Worm – Now on Facebook, Too)

UPDATE 09/26/09: Same worm – now on Facebook – Don’t click that link! Mashable has more about what to do if it’s too late:

Immediately change your password, delete all of the malware posts, and post a warning to not visit the link in question.

 

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ORIGINAL POST – 09/23/09: This is from Mashable:

Unsuspecting users are receiving DMs [Direct Messages on Twitter] with the following text:

 

If you get this DM, DO NOT VISIT THE LINK. It takes you to a replica of the Twitter login page where the hackers will steal your account and use it to send out more infected DMs to your friends.

If you’re one of the unlucky ones to be fooled by this worm, make sure you change your password. Also delete any tweets or DMs that have the link. If you can’t log into your account, reset the password and contact Twitter Support…Continue reading WARNING: Twitter Worm Spreading via Direct Messages

 

Obama wants you to read this post.

Actually, President Obama doesn’t know about this post (yet), but I was very curious about this advertising tactic I’ve been seeing in Facebook ads recently. So, I did a little research, and have come up with more questions than answers.

Lately, I’ve been seeing these ads in the right sidebar of my Facebook profile:

Obviously, with the popularity of Obama during the last election season among internet users, it’s easy to see why some advertising companies would be tempted to wring every last bit of social energy they can out of his name for as long as possible. These ads are appearing on Facebook feeds that talk about Obama, so they are apparently utilizing keywords, but obviously not semantic web techonology (as any reading of “tone” would detect that I am not exactly a fan of the current administration, and would not be likely to do ANYTHING simply because “Obama urged me to”).

Several companies have tried this, unsuccessfully. Here are some examples:

• Fried Chicken Places Slapped For Using Pres Obama’s Name
• Gun store catches heat over using Obamas name
• Russian ice cream ad using Obama’s image accused of being racist
• NBC rNBC rejects pro-life ad using Obama ejects pro-life ad using Obama

The problems encountered by the above companies have been carefully avoided in the ads appearing on Facebook. Obama’s name was not used as the name of the company in any of the ads, and the content of the ads was not controversial in nature.

Ok. But wait, there’s more…

A couple of days ago, I started clicking on these ads, and discovered that they are all being produced by the same company – Experian. Does that name sound familiar? Here’s a list of companies in what they call the “Experian Interactive Family”:

• PriceGrabber.com
• FreeCreditReport.com
• ClassesUSA.com
• Experian.com (one of the three major credit-reporting bureaus)

That’s right – a company that has access to ALL of your personal information – name, DOB, SS#, bank accounts, credit cards, etc., feels perfectly comfortable claiming that President Barack Obama endorses their products. Why is that?

I’d like to know what you think. Am I making something out of nothing, or is this something to be concerned about?

 

“Poking,” the old Fashioned Way

With no interwebz, Frank had to poke his friends manually…

(Hat-tip to Tiekirae for this one, via the Web 2.0 Reader!)

See more Lolcats and funny pictures.

 

Also see: Networking with Facebook: Tutorial for Beginners

 

African-American Facebook User Pleads Guilty to Impersonating a White Supremacist, Making Death Threats against an African-American university Student

UPDATE: Read the entire DOJ report, HERE.

CNN is reporting on a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice:

Dyron L. Hart [alias: Colton Brodoux], 20, of Poplarville, Mississippi, pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt to one count of communicating threats in interstate commerce…Hart admitted creating the fictitious account in November, pretending to be a white supremacist outraged by the election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first African-American president…He then transmitted a death threat via Facebook to an African-American student at Nicholls State University in Louisiana, saying he wanted to kill African-Americans because of Obama’s election.

[...]

…Hart will face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced November…

 

Hat-Tip Lag O’Morph via @brooksbane

 

If Ben Stiller can do this…

Yeah, so NOW, it’s official. The entire world is on Twitter and Facebook. We were all waiting for Ben Stiller, and he finally decided to join us. (’Bout time, Ben!)

I’m actually a fan of Stiller’s humor and movies, but I think it’s a little unusual that Ben has gone all of the way back to Dodgeball for his online persona. Oh, well, I’m sure he has his reasons, and it’ll be interesting to see what he does with his accounts.

Be sure to look for Ben Stiller on Facebook, and @RedHourBen on Twitter (”Red Hour Films” is the name of Stiller’s production company).

 

Hat=Tip, Mashable

 

Reasons Why I Don’t Have a Facebook Yet…

This comes to us from GraphJams.com, the creators of ICanHazCheezburger.com, and is a tongue-in-cheek illustration of why a few people in the world STILL don’t have a Facebook account.

see more Funny Graphs

 

WebWarriors: The ‘Our Country Deserves Better PAC’

When I put out a call on Facebook last month for nominations for WebWarriors, Joe Wierzbicki nominated his team at the Our Country Deserves Better PAC, specifically in regard to their successful efforts on Facebook:

I love what you’re doing with the web-based push, Jenn. Keep it up!

Conservatives have GOT to do a better job at this if we’re truly going to experience a conservative comeback and “revolution” in 2010 and 2012.

Nathan Tabor [of the Faith, Family, Freedom Alliance] wrote a piece at Townhall.com about our efforts to grow the movement using Facebook. At the time he wrote the piece (a little more than a week ago) we were at 10,000 members…

Well, today, the group has over 64,000 members on Facebook (click HERE to join). Very impressive.

The Our Country Deserves Better PAC is also active on YouTube, on MySpace, and on Twitter. To learn about what they stand for, visit www.OurCountryPAC.com, and clickon “ISSUES.”

If you’d like to nominate a “WebWarrior” (a conservative using Web 2.0 effectively) e-mail Jenn.

 

Baby Boomers Appear to Be Ditching Facebook

Mashable.com is reporting that Baby Boomers are ditching Facebook–or so it seems.  All the trends seem to point out that those over 55 were bubble Baby Boomers on Facebook.  Well, the bubble seems to have burst.  As Mashable points out:

Between November 2008 and February 2009, the baby boomer set (age 55-65) was one of the fastest growing segments on the social network, up 175.3% for females and 137.8% for males, according to the statistics. But that user boom was short-lived, and those users aren’t returning in the same numbers.  In April and May there were actually 650,000 less users over the age of 55 on Facebook than the previous two months — the only age demographic where the site experienced a decrease in users over that period.

Well, so much for the older generation and technology.  Maybe it’s a return to snail mail.

 

Update your Facebook Password Forthwith! (No, seriously, go update your Facebook Password right now!)

There is a phishing attack underway at Facebook – it seems to be “spam” related, rather than malicious (This means the hackers are trying to sell stuff, not crash your computer)…which is the good news. The bad news is that if they get your user ID and password they can really embarrass you in front of your Facebook friends by using your account to spam your friends.

How are they doing that? Basically, the way it works is you get a message from a friend, and when you click on it, it takes you back to the sign-up page. Except it’s not really the Facebook sign-up page, it’s the hacker’s (”phishers”) website – You’ll know, because the web address of the phisher will be in the window of your browser. Earlier in the week, it was FBAction.com; today, it’s FBStarter.com.

If this happens, DO NOT ENTER YOUR LOGIN INFORMATION! Just go back to your home page, and continue enjoying Facebook.

If it’s too late, or if you aren’t sure if you might have done this, just go ahead and update your Facebook Password…now…go…your friends will appreciate not receiving spam messages from you.

For more information to to TechCrunch, and see New Phishing Attack Spreading On Facebook. This Time From FBstarter, and Phishing Attack Underway At Facebook. Don’t Sign In To Fbaction.net.

Oh – and if you’re trying to warn your friends ON Facebook about the scam, don’t use the urls for FBAction.net, or FBStarter.com – Facebook has blocked ALL outgoing links to those sites to try to protect its users. Also, be on the lookout for other similar scams.

Photo from TechCrunch.com