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Facebook To Allow Celebrities And Public Figures To Use Alternate Names

February 16, 2012

Facebook is tweaking it’s policy to allow pseudonyms on its site for celebrities and other public figures.

In an effort to root out imposters, Facebook is going to launch Twitter-style ‘verified celebrity’ pages, and allow stars such as Lady Gaga use their stage names.

According to TechCrunch, the launch will begin tomorrow, with the option to ‘verify’ being sent to celebrity Facebook accounts. Notified users will have to verify their accounts with government issued ID, with an enter their alternate name that will appear next to their real name in parenthesis such as Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga), or simply as “Lady Gaga” with Stefani Germanotta appearing in the About section of her Timeline.

The verification will allow celebrities such as Stefani Germanotta to be more accessible to fans, as they can be easily found when searched using her stage name instead of her birth name. The verification will also boost the verified users’ prominence in Facebook’s “People To Subscribe To” suggestions.

Facebook will be manually approving the alternate names to make sure the individuals are really the celebrities, politicians, journalist etc. that they claim to be.

The program was launched in a bid to curb the influx of imposter on the social network, most of which are set up to dupe subscribers and/or for spamming. However, unlike at Twitter or Google+, verified Facebook accounts will not be sporting any sort of badge or denotation that indicates the ‘verified’ status.

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Paul Ceglia ordered to pay Facebook $75,766.70 in legal fees

February 15, 2012

Paul Ceglia, the man who claimed that he is entitled to half of the social-networking giant’s fortune, according to a contract with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, was ordered to pay Facebook $75,766.70 in legal fees related to the case.

Last month, Ceglia was also ordered to pay $5,000 to the court for ignoring court orders. So far, the fines imposed on Ceglia are: $5,000 payable to the court, $75,766.70 payable to Facebook, plus some unknown amount(s).

The decision was made Tuesday by U.S Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio in Buffalo, N.Y., after ruling that he violated a pretrial discovery order and failed to turn over email account information.

The judge, however, denied Facebook’s request for an order preventing Ceglia from filing any additional motions in the case until those fees were paid.

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Facebook for Windows Phone Version 2.3 officially announced

February 15, 2012

Microsoft announced the release of a new version of Facebook for Windows Phone. The new version, 2.3, is now available from Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace. You can also update the app through the Marketplace on your phone.

Facebook for Windows Phone 2.3 Facebook for Windows Phone Version 2.3 officially announced

The update includes improved design and support for several new Facebook features. There’s Pages view, the ability to access Groups, and see the Likes on any posts or photos, as well as the ability to apply filter to your News Feed. All your requests, messages, and notifications sits at the top of the main interface.

A refined toolbar at the bottom provides quick access to Check in, Add (post, or add/take a new photo.)

“Test out your groups. Visit your pages. Look at who like your posts. Change the banner image. Check out the improved news feed performance. Use the new filters. Explore the improved navigation,” Microsoft said on said..

There is no full Timeline support though. Hopefully, we will see a full integration of the feature in the next update.

There are about 1.4 million active users of the Facebook app for Windows Phone, according to the Next Web.

If you use Facebook app for Windows Phone, do share your thoughts on this updated version.

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Houston Scams Floods Facebook And Twitter

February 14, 2012

As the news of Whitney Houston’s sudden demise spread like wildfire, and becomes a trending topic on social networking sites, cyber crooks are wasting no time to capitalize on her tragic death.

The security firm TrendMicro found two scams – a clickjacking attack on Facebook and another link circulating on Twitter.

The scam on Facebook was spreading with through wall posts the read, “I Cried watching this video. RIP Whitney Houston”, and a link to the supposed video. As usual, clicking on the link takes the users through several redirections until they are landed on a survey scam site.

The security firm, upon further investigation on the domains involved in the redirections, found 101 more survey scams registered on the same IP where the domains are hosted.

The firm also found tweets with malicious links taking advantage of the singer’s death, which is trending worldwide on Twitter. Clicking on the link takes people to a blog dedicated to Houston’s career, but redirects them to a Web page offering several Whitney Houston wallpapers.

Downloading wallpaper triggers another offer to download Whitney Houston ringtones, and the user is eventually taken to a survey site that asks for mobile number.

Always be cautious when clicking news items on Facebook or Twitter feeds, especially with trending topics.

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Stolen Facebook, Twitter Login Credentials On Sale

February 10, 2012

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.

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Facebook Reveals Salaries Of Top Executives In Regulatory Filing

February 9, 2012

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.

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Spammers Hits 4 Million Facebook Users On Any Given Day

January 10, 2012

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.”

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Facebook May Turn On Actions Any Time Soon

January 9, 2012

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.

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‘If I Die’ Facebook App: Update Your Status From Your Grave

January 7, 2012

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?

fb grim reaper If I Die Facebook App: Update Your Status From Your GraveBut, 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:

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Facebook Officially Release Its Messenger for Windows 7

December 30, 2011

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.

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