Cybercriminals are selling bulk log-in credentials of social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, and web server management software cPanel.

Security company Trusteer says it has discovered evidence of “factory outlets” where the information are being put up for sale at wholesale rate using underworld advertisements. The information were also available in country-specific batches at $30 a log-in.

Login credentials of financial sites are more valuable to most cybercriminals. The information is harvested by infecting systems with Trojans such as Zeus or SpyEye. These malwares also captures the login credentials used on the victim’s machine to access other websites, in addition to online banking credentials.

“To monetize the login credentials that pile up, fraudsters have started setting up “Factory Outlets” to sell them off,” Amit Klein, Trusteer’s chief technical officer, wrote in a blog.

He stress that the offering of cPanel credentials was particularly worrisome.

Fraudsters can use the account logins for web hosting admin system like cPanel to hijack a website and “plant malicious codes on these sites … that can exploit browser vulnerabilities and infect machines through drive-by-downloads.” The next step, in common practice, would be to “lure victims to the site through phishing emails and social network messages,” infecting the victims machines to carry out attacks and start over the vicious cycle.

Having access to bulk social network accounts can also be used for spamming and spreading scams on the sites.

“This latest development provides a window into the vast cybercrime aftermarket that has risen up on the internet and been made possible by sophisticated malware. Whether it’s bulk drive-by download infections, bulk login credentials, pre-built web-injects, etc., criminals today have an unprecedented arsenal of tools at their disposal to attack banks and enterprises,” Amit wrote.

Facebook officials told Trusteer that it actively detects known malware on users’ devices and validates every login to the site to check for malicious activity.

Facebook’s top executives are eligible for twice-a-year bonuses up to 45 per cent of their base salaries, according to a Wednesday regulatory filing.

New employment agreements were among the items filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which stated that founder and Chief Excecutive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will both be eligible for 45 per cent bonuses of their base salaries plus other wages.

Zuckerberg’s base salary for this year is $500,000, while Sandberg’s is $300,000.

David Ebersman, who will continue to serve as chief financial officer will get a base salary of $300,000.

Facebook’s Vice President of Engineering, Mike Schroepfer, will receive a base salary of $275,000. Both he and Ebersman have a target bonus of 45 per cent.

Another top executive, Vice President and General Counsel Theodore Ullyot, will receive a base salary of $275,000. He will also get a retention bonus of $400,000 per year for five years, as well as restricted stock and stock options.

Effective January 01, 2013, Zuckerberg’s annual salary will drop to $1 according to last week’s S-1.

Internet’s oldest pest, spam, is now moving away from email to social networks. With the ever growing popularity of social networks, spammers are now targeting the two most popular social networking sites – Facebook and Twitter – like never before.

In November 2011, 70 percent of all email was spam, down from 92 percent in August 2010. While the percentage of spam on social networks is still relative low compared to email, with Facebook saying that less than 4 percent of the content shared on their site is spam and affects 0.5 percent (4 million) of its users on any given day. Whereas, Twitter says just 1.5 percent of all tweets were spam in 2010.

But, don’t think the social network sites are just sitting back. Facebook and Twitter are waging war on social spam. Facebook says, each day the site blocks 200 million malicious actions, such as links to malware.

Facebook has a team of 30 workers who spend hours combing the site for user-reported spam (up from just 4 in 2008), in addition to 46 people working in security as well as 300 people focused on user issue.

Twitter, on the other hand, has only two programmers fighting spam, but it plans to add five more by the end of the year, and another nine account abuse specialists.

With over 800 million users, preventing spam is an uphill battle for site like Facebook, but they are determined to fight the good fight.

We, as users of these networking sites, what is our contribution in this fight against social spam? I believe we can at least take the advice of Chester Wisniewski, Senior Security Advisor at Sophos Inc.

Aside from relying on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google to do a “good job” the best most people can do is implement a good web security filter to look for malicious or spammy URLs and prevent your browser from going to content that may be harmful.”

Facebook is supposedly ready to launch the last piece of its new Open Graph element – Actions.

According to VentureBeat, Facebook is in the final stage of testing and could turn it on any day now or in a few weeks at the most.

We already wrote a lot about the other two elements of Facebook’s new Open Graph that was announced at the last F8 Conference, Timeline and Ticker.

Action is similar to Facebook “Like” button. But, instead of just showing your agreement or support with something, they will show your interactions with them. I am sure you have already come in contact with some action through apps like Spotify. Remember the updates on your feeds about tracks you are listening to? That is an example of Facebook’s Open Graph’s “Listen” action. On top of that, actions will also document how you interact with them.

A publisher, for instance, could create the “Read” action and associate that action with its collection of books. Users would be able to indicate that have read a book, which is automatically updated to Ticker. You would also be able to add that same “Read” application as a box to your Timeline, and show off all the books you’ve read in a small container on your Timeline.

As we know, almost every major update from Facebook has received mixed responses from users. Actions too will meet the same fate when advertisers start to implement it to target users, and these actions starts popping out everywhere – News feeds, ticker, and Timeline.

What do you think.

Most people, at least have a rough idea of what they are going to do for the day, tomorrow, or this week. You are reading this post today, but who can say for certain that you will be able to visit the site tomorrow. It’s a grim thought, right?

But, for those of you who live your life on Facebook, there is a small consolation least the unfortunate happens – updating your status after you die – because Facebook profiles don’t die the same way people do.

A Facebook app called “If I Die” lets you post a final message to your wall and loved one after you’re gone.

The app lets you record your final thoughts in a video or leave your loved ones as many messages (wishes, encouragement, goodbyes or just about anything), and then choose three “trustees” (Facebook friends) who are charged with verifying your death. When your trustees confirm your death, your messages will be published either all at once to your Facebook wall or according to a designated schedule.

Wilook, the Israel-based company behind the app, built the app because nobody really know when the grim reaper will visit us. “We all have things to say and don’t necessarily have the audience with the patience to hear us,” says Eran Alfonta, the app’s co-founder and CEO.

Mashable reported that, Alfonta got the idea when two of his friends, after they narrowly escaped a fatal car crash on a trip to Italy without their children, asked him to create a website where they could record something secret to their kids that would only be sent if they die.

I am sure, many of you will have different opinions about getting ready for this inevitable thing in our life in general and the app in particular. So, don’t forget share your views with us.

‘If I die’ app in action:

Facebook today officially released its “Facebook Messenger for Windows,” a stand-alone desktop chat client.

Apparently, an Israeli blog TechIT leaked the link to the client, before Facebook officially launched the new client.

TechCrunch reported that the app was first released for private testing in November this year, but is now available to the public. However, the app will only run on Windows 7 operating system, according to tech site, The Verge.

The client offers a number of Facebook features, including live updating Facebook ticker and notifications, as well as dockable client window.

Here is the official download link for Facebook Messenger client. You can learn more about it on the Facebook help page.

An Indian student was shot dead in Greater Manchester on Boxing Day, and sadly, family members came to know of it only through Facebook.

Anuj Bidve, 23, took admission in Lancaster University in October this year and was on Christmas vacation in Manchester City with his friends where he was shot dead, near their hotel.

So far, five persons have been arrested in connection to the murder. The murder weapon, believe to be a small handgun, is yet to be found. Police says they are treating the murder as a hate crime even if there is no evidence because of concerns within the community.

The father accused British authorities of failing to contact him in India to break the news of the death. He revealed that he found out about his son’s death over Facebook.

According to a report on The Times of India, condolences and messages extending help has been pouring in on the ‘Anuj Bidve Help Page’ on Facebook, with some even offering to help the bereaved family get their only son’s body back to Pune.

The Indian Government also stepped in and decided to bear the expenses of bringing Anuj Bidve’s body to India.

David Cameron’s government in Britain has set August 25 as the date to meet with the representatives from social networks Facebook, Twitter and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Messenger service, to discuss about their use and their role in the recent UK riot this earlier month.

The riot was the worst over the decades, with more than 1,200 people arrested till date. Apparently, these social networking technologies were used by the rioters and looters to coordinate their plots.

Facebook is the first to confirm the meeting. Facebook said “We look forward to meeting with the home secretary to explain the measures we have been taking to ensure that Facebook is a safe and positive platform for people in the UK at this challenging time”.

Although, BlackBerry has not officially confirmed to the meeting but previously said that “we welcome the opportunity for consultation together with other companies in the technology and telecommunications industry”.

It is only Twitter which has not made any public announcement about whether it will attend the session. Among the major social networks, RIM has been particularly criticized for its extensive used by the rioters.

Despite hue and cry in support of freedom of expression and flow of information the British government threatened to limit access to social networks that has been held accountable in the outbreak of social unrest in the country.

The meeting will decide about the fate of these social networks or least we speculate certain rules and control over these platforms by the gov

Pixable, a popular photo-organization app on Facebook has now added video discovery and sharing feature.

Pixable’s Photofeed, intelligently sorts and categorize you and your friend’s Facebook, Instagram and Flickr photos. It also creates a ranking for the photos such as best content of the day, month and week, that is determined by the number of Likes and comments the photos have received. Using the same technology, the app will help users find the most relevant videos shared via Facebook and other sites, including popular video sites like YouTube and Vimeo.

Video feeds now appear in the ‘Category’ section under ‘New Shared Videos’ and ‘New Uploaded Videos’, allowing you to browse the videos that you friends uploaded or shared from other sources on the web.

With a feature (algorithm) called WonderRank, Pixable sorts through a your network to learn and find what kind of media you find most interesting, and presents you will similar medias. The more you engage with the app, the ‘smarter’ the app gets, and serves your interests and preferences better.

Pixable app is available for the Web, iPad and iPhone, but for now, video discovery is only available in Pixable’s web application, and will be extended soon to its iPad and iPhone apps.

A concerned father-of-four has developed a bullying alert system for Facebook.

The alert system called “Know Diss” scans texts of youngsters’ Facebook walls and inboxes and alert parents when trigger words and phrases such as ‘gay’ or ‘fat’ appears.

According to the Dailymail, NHS consultant Paddy Clarke came up with the idea of making this bully alert system after reading a string of cyber-bullying horror stories.

The service is said to cost £12 for a yearly subscription and both parents and children are required to sign up by email for the software to work.

Parents and children can register their email addresses at www.knowdiss.co.uk.