Posts Tagged ‘Games’
Facebook Board Member Hacked, Friends Phished
Facebook seems to be growing less secure by the month.
Is the Facebook mammoth finally toppling over? Recent news points to a crippling stance in reputation, including a flaw that allows users to view one of their friend’s live chat window, and an analysis reporting that Facebook users are actually looking for ways to delete their account. Now a Facebook board member is coming under fire after a hacker gained access to his account and spammed friends with phishing scams.
The phishing event, a scam called FBDigits that has targeted Facebook users since April 20, took place Saturday evening and involved over 2,300 friends on Jim Breyer’s list. A message was sent from his account, asking “Would you like a Facebook phone number?” The scam claims to be an app that offers “revolutionary phone software that integrates into Facebook Chat.” It supposedly allows users to make free phone calls and text messages from within Facebook.
Naturally, that’s not the case. “This was a phishing scam and Jim’s account appears to have been compromised,” said Larry Yu, a Facebook spokesman, late Sunday. “The issue has since been resolved and we’re actively trying to block this activity.” The company also released a formal statement Monday morning, saying that Facebook needs the help of its users to combat the growing threats. But as fears of privacy and security issues grow, Facebook may find itself spiraling downhill as users flock to other social networking solutions.
“We take security very seriously and have devoted significant resources towards helping our users protect their accounts,” Facebook said. Breyer, who is a partner at Accel Partners, has not made a formal statement, nor has he answered questions regarding the breach.
Think Before You Download on Internet
Are you downloading your favourite game or a particular application that allows you to share pictures, videos and information? These days, we have various gaming applications and individual developers coming out with unique and interesting downloadable applications. But, you need to make sure you are not inviting virus to disrupt your mobile handset. You should know that Internet/ mobile applications, if certified, can be trusted; if not, they can hamper your mobile data.
Worms, trojans, viruses and hackers – they not just threaten for your home PC or laptop anymore. As per Trend Micro, an Internet security firm, cyber crooks are on their way into your pocket. The popularity of smartphones like the Blackberry, iPhone and the emerging Droid is on a boom and that’s making them a lucrative target for cyber crooks to cause mischief.
The possibility of someone hacking cellphone became public knowledge when Paris Hilton’s mobile was hacked. Unfortunately for her, numbers of all her celebrity friends were also placed on the Internet – resulting in a barrage of calls to each of them. This was one of the highlighted cases of phone hacking through extracting personal information from the mobile handset.
The ingenuity of cyber criminals to come up with new social engineering angles seems endless. Mobile worms and viruses are similar to those that infect PCs. An unsuspecting user can be tricked into installing a harmless-looking file that infects a device and seeks additional mobile phones to target, often disrupting the phone’s operations.
What can a mobile hacker do? There are quite a number of things that can be done by the mobile hacker. Depending on intent, their main targets are:
Steal your number: Your phone number can be accessed and obtained by hacking. This allows them to make calls and have it charged on your account.
Extract your information: Mobile hacking allows a hacker to contact your cellphone, without your knowledge, and to download your addresses and other information you might have on your phone. Many hackers are not content to just getting your information. Some will even change all your phone numbers! Be sure that you keep a backup of your information somewhere. All you have to do is to ensure that the handset is malware-protected. Here are some quick and easy points a user should keep in mind when downloading applications on mobile phones.
First, identify the source from where you are downloading the application. A general community site that does not have any face is not contactable. For example, download.com is the worst place to get the software from. You can download applications like our P2P software on your mobile.
Check the software for security certificates. Try not to use any unsigned application. These are third-party signatures from Verisign, Symbian and Sun. Absence of any trusted signature can make the application very dangerous. The only warning that you will get is when you install and load the application. So, go for trusted applications.
Once the signature is there, visit the company site to verify application that you have downloaded. Check for warnings, known bugs and the functions that it would provide. This may help you understand the resources the application will take, such as memory, CPU, etc. Applications like file share, Voip, etc use some core OS functionality. In case of a bug, such an application can disrupt other functionalities of the phone.
Social media-based applications that download the files can also bring in a virus-infected file to your handset. In such a case, one should have some anti-virus software installed in the system or the application should check for MIME-type before it allows the download of the content. But, make sure that you protect your handset with anti-virus software to ensure that even if by chance you have downloaded a non-trusted application, security solution providers like Trend Micro or McAfee have anti-virus solutions for you.
Check for your data plan before you start to use an application that uses some sort of data transfers. An application like mBit p2p can generate huge data transfers. The user is advised to get in touch with the customer care to identify an appropriate plan for it. The user can tell the customer support about the desired application and an appropriate plan for the same.
Follow these simple steps and you’ll ahve a happy downloading session. So, treat your smart phones like your laptops or computers, and not a landline phone.
Sony Ericsson Finally Launches Satio, Aino and Yari in India
Sony Ericsson has unveiled their ‘Communication Entertainment’ consumer proposition, the pinnacle of what the company has been working towards since the start of the joint venture in 2001 – the true fusion of communication and entertainment. Bringing this offering alive and it’s take some time but Sony Ericsson has finally launched its new product line of handsets that include the much awaited 12MP camera phone the Satio and of course the Aino and Yari are also here now.
The future of mobile entertainment, the Satio, Aino and Yari phones are designed to offer users the ultimate multimedia experience with Remote Play access to videos, television shows and photos and they also incorporate gesture based gaming.
Satio
“Bringing together rich content, unique applications and best in class entertainment experiences, our Communication Entertainment proposition is the next step in our evolution”, said Anil Sethi, President, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications India at the launch. “Everything that we have done to date has brought us to this point and we are now ready to unveil the next chapter in the evolution of the company – Communication Entertainment – providing consumers unlimited opportunities to share their entertainment experiences.”
Aino
“The introduction of the Satio, Aino and Yari phones in India will redefine the communication and entertainment experience for mobile users.” said Sudhin Mathur, General Manager, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications India. “The range packs in the best technology and applications, to deliver the ultimate entertainment experience on the go.”
Sony Ericsson’s Communication Entertainment consumer proposition is based around three key promises:
Uniting best in class entertainment experiences into one offering such as the Walkman music experience, the Cyber-shot imaging experience, Java gaming and messaging integrated with services and applications.
Broadening entertainment experiences by integrating the mobile phone into other devices in the home letting consumers share and enjoy entertainment content through a variety of channels including TV, PC and Hifi systems.
Fusing communication with entertainment by removing barriers and offering unlimited sharing opportunities, multiplying the value of people’s entertainment experiences through a host of web applications and Sony Ericsson’s unique Play Now offering.
Yari
A quick recap of the handsets features –
The Satio runs on a Symbian operating system and features -
3.5 inch TFT Touchscreen (360 x 640 pixels, 16 million colors), 16:9 widescreen format
3G (HSDPA), GPRS/EDGE
Wi-Fi, DLNA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0
GPS with A-GPS support (Google Maps)
12.1 megapixel camera and Xenon flash, LED for Video, geo-tagging, Face and Smile Detection
FM radio
MicroSD card support
The second handset, the Aino slider that offers Remote Play for the PS3 comes with -
3 inch limited touchscreen (240 x 430 pixels, 16 million colors)
3G (HSDPA), GPRS/EDGE
Wi-Fi, DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB 2.0
GPS with A-GPS support (Wayfinder, Google Maps)
8 megapixel AF camera with LED flash, geo-tagging, Face Detection
FM radio
MicroSD card support
The last handset that made its India debut is the Yari slider that has -
2.4-inch limited touchscreen (240 x 320 pixels, 256K colors)
3G (HSDPA), GPRS/EDGE
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0
GPS with A-GPS support (Wayfinder)
5 megapixel AF camera with LED flash, geo-tagging, Face Detection
FM radio
MicroSD card support
Personally, since we did get a chance to test them at their Singapore event a couple of months ago, I can quite confidently say that the handsets make a great addition to the existing range of mobile handsets in general that are available here in the country today. The price tags on the handsets are as follows -
Rs. 35,950 for the 12 megapixel camera phone the Satio
Rs. 28,950 for the Remote Play, PS3 compatible Aino and
Rs. 16,950 for the Yari that incorporates gesture gaming.
Facebook Launches Permissions for Apps and Websites
Facebook is rolling out a new feature that requires outside applications and websites to tell users exactly what parts of their profiles have to be shared for the apps to work.
Applications already had to ask users for permission to access anything in their profiles that wasn’t public. But these services didn’t have to specify what information they were using. Such information can include your photos, your friends’ birthdays or your e-mail address.
Under the new policy, the services will say which aspects of a profile they will mine, but the user still won’t be able to pick out which pieces they want to grant access to. They have to either grant permission or disallow the app from working at all.
The world’s largest online social network announced the change in April. It’s part of Facebook’s cooperation with Canada’ privacy commissioner, who has been among the sharpest critics of the company’s privacy policies.
Facebook has come under fire for the way it treats the information its nearly 500 million users post on the site. Most recently, privacy advocates and lawmakers have complained about Facebook’s “instant personalization” feature, which draws information from users’ profiles to customize a handful of other sites, including review site Yelp and the music service Pandora.
Partly because of criticism and partly because of the site’s growth from a small network for college students, Facebook’s privacy settings became complicated and often confusing over the years.
In response, Facebook simplified its privacy settings in changes unveiled last month — though some critics still say these changes don’t go far enough.