Tag Archives: Social Networking

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Twitter Utilized User 2FA Phone Numbers For Ad Targeting

Twitter isn’t having a good year.  Over the past twelve months, the company has fessed up to half a dozen bugs and blunders that have left the company with egg on their faces and have earned the ire of their burgeoning user base.

In late 2018, the company disclosed a bug that shared a variety of private user data with third party app developers.

Then in January 2019, the company disclosed the existence of a bug that had been sharing a small percentage of private tweets going back more than five years.

Then in May 2019, the company disclosed a new bug that shared the location data of an unknown number of iOS users with “a trusted partner.”

On top of that, the month of August 2019 saw the company fess up to two separate issues. One issue involved sharing user data with advertising partners without their users’ express consent. The other was where advertisers made inferences about a user’s device in order to custom-tailor advertising. That, again, was without the express consent of the users.

Which brings us to this most recent blunder.  According to a spokesperson for Twitter, the company used phone numbers provided by its user base for two-factor authentication, along with email addresses, to display targeted ads.  This is the exact behavior that Facebook recently got raked over the coals for.

It gets worse though, because the company apparently has no data, and no way to tell exactly how many of its users saw their information exposed and misused in this manner.

The company issued a formal statement, apologized for the error, and said that the issue had been fixed as of September 17th.  That’s small consolation to their users, for whom this kind of thing is fast becoming the norm.  It’s enough to make some people rethink using the platform altogether, and rightly so.

 

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Update Whatsapp Or Risk Security Vulnerability

Do you use Whatsapp on an Android device?

If so, you’ll want to upgrade to the latest version as soon as possible.

Recently, a critical vulnerability being tracked as ‘CVE-2019-11932’ was discovered that allows hackers to gain access to your chat logs and personal information by sending you a poisoned GIF.

The flaw is called a “Double-free vulnerability” because it’s triggered when the free() parameter is called twice on the same value and argument inside the software.  When this happens, it causes memory in use to leak and become corrupted, opening the door to the execution of arbitrary code by a determined hacker.

The issue was discovered by an independent security researcher who goes by the name “Awakened.”  While his or her true identity is unknown, they published the technical specifications of the attack on GitHub, which revealed that the bug can be triggered in two ways.

The first way requires a piece of malware code to be injected on a target Android device.  This software generates a poisoned GIF which is used to hack Whatsapp via a collection of library data.

The second variant of the attack requires that a Whatsapp user be exposed to the poisoned GIF via other channels. For instance, if the poisoned file was sent directly to the user or inserted into a user’s gallery.

In any case, the company moved swiftly to patch the issue and if you’re not running a version below 2.19.244, you’re fine.  If you are running an older version than that, you should update immediately, and better yet, just set Whatsapp to receive automatic updates so issues like these won’t plague you in the future.

Two things should be stressed here:  First, this issue only seems to affect Whatsapp for Android. Second, so far, there’s no evidence that the attack has been seen used in the wild.  Nonetheless, it pays to upgrade right away because now that the details of the attack are publicly available, it’s just a matter of time.

 

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

 Will We Control Computers With Our Brains Soon?

Over the years, Facebook has made several high-profile acquisitions, with one of their most recent being the acquisition of Oculus Rift for a staggering two billion dollars.  Now, rumors are swirling that the company is on track to buy another innovative startup, CTRL-Labs. They are the makers of an innovative device worn at the wrist that uses brain waves to allow users to control electronic devices.

Estimates are that the social media giant will pay between $500 million and a cool one billion dollars to acquire the company, which is one of a number of startups creating BMIs, (Brain Machine Interfaces).

What’s interesting about the offering by CTRL-Labs is that their product is worn on the wrist, while most of their competitors rely on devices worn on the head. In a few cases, they require chips to be physically implanted in the brains of those who want to use their tech.

In this regard, what CTRL-Labs is offering borrows from two different technologies that have been featured on TED talks in recent years:  Pranav Mistry’s “Sixth Sense” technology (which translates gestures into commands that a computer can understand) and the Emotive headset, which scans your brain for changes and translates those signals into commands.

Honestly the industry is still too small and the technologies are too unrefined to know for certain whose products will wind up being adopted as the de facto standard.  However, the fact that Facebook is placing a large bet on the industry is a powerful indication that these types of technologies (whatever form they ultimately take) are the future.

It’s a long-term bet, to be sure.  Although there are products you can buy today, they only offer limited functionality and it will be at least five years before we see a killer app for the new tech, but one way or another, the day is coming when we will indeed control computers with our brains.

 

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Google Hangouts Extending  Support Until Next Year

If you’re a G Suite user, you’re probably already aware that Google has been making plans to shut down Google Hangouts.  In fact, the original plan was to begin phasing it out of the G Suite in October of this year (2019).

If you’re a fan of the service and rely on it for interoffice communications, you can breathe a short-lived sigh of relief.

The company recently announced that they’re pushing their timetable back. G Suite users will continue to have access to it through the first half of 2020, with Google beginning their process of shutting it down starting in June.

Once Google does formally retire Hangouts, the plan is to replace it with a pair of new services:  Hangouts Meet (which is a video conferencing service) and Hangouts chat (for real time text-based communications).  The new services will have a similar look and feel to classic Hangouts, so there shouldn’t be a big learning curve when migrating from the old to the new. Of course, the new services will feature some additional functionality that it’s hoping will wow its impressively sized user base.

On balance, this is good news.  People who are attached to classic Hangouts get to keep using it for a little longer than originally anticipated. The new features and similar look and feel should assuage concerns about the switch over when it actually occurs.

It is also worth mentioning that Google has a longstanding habit of shifting gears and changing plans mid-stream. So, news of these most recent changes to the company’s plans should be taken with a proverbial grain of salt.  Between now and next June, it’s entirely within the realm of possibility that the company’s plans will change yet again, which may give classic Hangouts users even more time.  Stay tuned.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Facebook Is Making Changes To Privacy Following Huge Fine

We’re talking about the result of a massive five billion dollar fine over violations surrounding the Cambridge Analytica scandal. While the staggering size of the fine made all the headlines, there’s more to the company’s agreement than just several billion dollars.

In addition to the fine itself, the company has also accepted an agreement.

It forces Facebook to implement a new privacy framework, and to be monitored and held accountable for decisions it makes about its users’ privacy and information it collects on them.

The FTC Press release reads, in part, as follows:

“The order requires Facebook to restructure its approach to privacy from the corporate board-level down and establishes strong new mechanisms to ensure that Facebook executives are accountable for the decisions they make about privacy and that those decisions are subject to meaningful oversight (for a period of not less than twenty years).”

Facebook also published a statement about their acceptance of the fine, but it offered little in the way of new information.  Digging a bit deeper, however, some of the details of the changes coming to Facebook include the following:

  • The formation of an independent privacy committee – The committee will be appointed by an independent nominating committee and be comprised of Facebook’s board of directors. The FTC says this will help limit CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s formerly unfettered control over decisions affecting user privacy.
  • The appointment of Compliance Officers – These people will report to the new privacy committee and will be tasked with monitoring the entire company’s privacy program. The Compliance offers are not appointed by Facebook’s CEO or any Facebook employee, and no Facebook employee (including the CEO) can remove those officers.  One of the responsibilities of the new Compliance Team will be to submit reports to the FTC.
  • More and better external oversight of Facebook – The FTC’s ruling strengthens the role of independent third-party assessors who will conduct independent reviews of Facebook’s privacy program at two-year intervals.

Will these steps be enough?  Only time will tell, but it’s certainly a great start.  Kudos to the FTC for holding Facebook accountable and trying to be a force for change.

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