Facebook settles on $10 million payment for Sponsored Stores lawsuit

Posted by Jim Bernstein

If you are a Facebook user I’m sure you have seen those advertisements that have one of your friends names in it stating that they “like” that product or service and showing their profile picture next to the ad. These ads make a recommendation for that product or service from your friend but the catch is that your friend actually did not recommend the product or service. Plus your friend doesn’t get any compensation from the advertiser for them using their name and picture for the ad and they don’t even know that they are being used in this way.

Five California residents sued Facebook over this practice stating that it violates California law and the case was actually settled last month but just now made public. According to the lawsuit, this could have included one of every three Americans and could have been a huge payment for many people if more lawsuits were to follow. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh found that Facebook's Sponsored Stories could cause "economic injury" by using friends' names, likenesses and pictures. She ordered a cy-pres settlement, meaning Facebook's $10 million would be sent to charity.

Internet Explorer 10 to use the Do Not Track setting as its default

 Posted by David Bernstein

As I’m sure you know, Windows 8 is almost here and that means a new version of the Internet Explorer web browser will be here as well and Windows 8 will include version 10 of IE. But this time IE 10 will be the first browser to have the Do Not Track setting turned on by default.

The Do Not Track feature prevents 3^rd party websites from tracking your online activity. Sites that receive the Do Not Track signal from your browser are supposed to honor that request and therefore not track your activity. This feature has been an option that you can enable manually but many people don’t know how to do it or even realize that the option exists. If it’s enabled by default then way more people will be using private browsing than ever before.

This may be good for IE end users since most people don’t like to be tracked but others are not too happy about it. The advertising industry for example likes to track where you go in order to help them know what your shopping habits or interests may be but Brendan Lynch who is the Chief Privacy Officer at Microsoft says that Microsoft's is trying to advance trust and consumer privacy online and that people come first.

Middle East targeted in cyber attack

Posted by Jim Bernstein

There has been a recent discovery of a virus that is stealing data from countries in the Middle East such as Iran and Israel apparently since 2010 or maybe even longer. The malware has been called Flame and appears to have been created by a government agency rather than the usual cybercriminal.

Flame has been designed to steal information such as files, audio conversations and screenshots off of targeted systems. Security firm Kaspersky Labs said "The complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious program exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date." Code wise, Flame is 20 times the size of the recent Stuxnet malware that attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities.

It is still unclear who designed the Flame virus and what country it may have come from. Kaspersky is currently working deciphering the virus and it may require other security analysts to help figure it out since is a very complex virus. Both Flame and Stuxnet seem to infect computers by exploiting the same hole in the Windows OS and use a similar way of spreading itself.

Shared “CableWiFi” to be offered by Verizon’s cable partners

Posted by David Bernstein
 
There has been a new shared WiFi network put into place by Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications, Bright House Networks and Cablevision Systems that includes over 50,000 hotspots that can be shared by their customers. In fact, this has already been implemented in New York City and central Florida by Cablevision and Bright House. Time Warner plans on building a free WiFi network around Los Angeles for their customers that also offers pay as you go access for non Time Warner customers. These access points will be in high traffic areas such as malls, parks and concert venues. Plus if you are traveling you will be able to get wireless access from another of the partner’s connections with the same account you use in your coverage area.

This merging of cable companies and Verizon has some worried that a decrease in competition will lead to fewer options and higher prices for consumers. Mayors from upstate New York wrote to the FCC saying they feared the deal would “deter any expansion” of Verizon’s fiber-optic FiOS network in their communities, thus “killing thousands of jobs and exacerbating the digital divide.” The partnership expands upon a 2010 agreement reached by Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable to allow their rivals' customers to roam on each others' networks of Wi-Fi hotspots.

Flash Player for Internet Explorer vulnerability

 Posted by Jim Bernstein

Adobe is warning Widows users who use Internet Explorer and Adobe Flash Player that they may be at risk of a malware infection. It turns out that there are Flash Player update installation files being sent via email that contain malicious code which can allow attackers to crash Flash Player and execute malicious code which can seize control of the user's computer.

Adobe has released an emergency patch to address the vulnerability in their Flash Player software and it should be applied if you are an Internet Explorer user running Windows. Even if you use Flash Player on a different platform it's still a good idea to apply the patch.

Adobe is recommending that users of the following or earlier versions of Flash Player update their software ASAP:

Version 11.2.202.233 for Windows, Mac and Linux users
Version 11.1.115.7 for Android 4.x users
Version 11.1.111.8 for Android 3.x users

For more information and a link to the patch visit the Adobe Flash website

Cyber attacks on the rise

Posted by David Bernstein

If you keep up on your tech news you most likely know how bad cyber crime has gotten recently. It seems like there is always another new story about how some service, operating system or website has gotten hacked and peoples personal information has been stolen.

In fact, in 2011 cyber attacks increased 81% which is a huge jump. Most of these attacks have been on mobile devices such as Android smartphones as well as on social networks such as Facebook. Android devices have increased in popularity which makes them a target for cyber criminals just like malware attacks the Windows operating system because there are so many computers running Windows out there. Actually mobile attacks have increased 93% in 2011.

Security company Symantec has blocked 5.5 billion attacks in 2011 and have also identified over 400 million malware variants. over 230 million identities were stolen or exposed last year through means of data breaches or lost phones and backup drives etc.

And its not just big companies that are being hit. Now it seems that cyber criminals are going after smaller companies with less than 2,500 employees and even some with less than 250 employees most likely because they tend to be less secure than the larger companies. So be sure to be careful when you do anything online from any device, anywhere!

May 17th may be the day Facebook goes public

Posted by Jim Bernstein

 

Facebook has been planning its IPO (Initial Public Offering) for some time now and has been waiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission but sources say that the day for this to happen may be May 17^th. Back in November of last year, Facebook executives were discussing when they should file the paperwork for the IPO and apparently they filed paperwork for its IPO on February 2. But it usually takes around 12 weeks for a new company to begin trading on the stock market. The SEC prohibits anyone with knowledge of the filings to report anything to the media so nothing is for sure but there has been some talking going on from people in the know.

Facebook’s IPO is expected to be one of the largest tech offerings ever and they plan to raise $5 billion dollars in doing so. Facebook has recently stopped trading in private markets, so their 2.5 billion outstanding shares don’t have any other way to trade until a public offer happens. This also keeps their implied value from getting too much higher than it was on the last close of their trading.