A Facebook App Protects Accounts from Spam and Malware

Facebook has become one big fertile ground for information thieves, hackers and viral spam posts. Despite this, Facebook has done very little to protect its users from all of that bad stuff. So what, someone had to create a Facebook app to protect us from all that spam.

Two University of California, Riverside graduate students who work for a Web protection service company called StopTheHacker.com run by an alumnus Anirban Banerjee, who received his Ph.D. in 2008 from UC Riverside and Michalis Faloutsos, a professor of computer science and engineering at the university have partnered and develop a free Facebook application that detects spam and malware posted on users walls and news feeds.

Facebook finally introduces secure connection ("https")

The forth quarter of last year (2010) was a bit worry some for Facebook considering the fact that there were a lot of questions raised about the security of Facebook. The Firefox plugin Firesheep allowed any amateur to hack into someones Facebook account logged into the same WiFi or other public networks.

The only answer to this question was to make Facebook force the browser into using secure connection to communicate with the website to ensure that the information you send remains private, just like you find on Gmail, Paypal and a various other services which involve online transactions. Finally Facebook has introduced this feature.

This indicates that your browser is using a secure connection ("HTTPS"). 

Firesheep lets anyone hack into your social network accounts on public networks

After the Toorcon 12 hacker conference in San Diego on Sunday, public and Open WiFi networks cannot be trusted for security any more. Eric Butler, a freelance web application and software developer from Seattle, WA revealed to the world a free Firefox Plug-in called "Firesheep".

This plugin take advantage of the a security issue which is very prevalent across an array websites which include Facebook and Twitter. When logging into a website you usually start by submitting your username and password. The remote server then verifies the information to see if an account matching with the provided information exists and if so, replies back to device with a "cookie" which is used by your browser for all subsequent requests or information transfer.

India (DRDO) to Develop its Own Operating System for Security

The recent virus attacks that took place in Iran by a virus called Stuxnet which can enter crucial installations like nuclear plants and other installations has posed a great threat to countries and systems all across the world. It takes advantage from a security hole in the Windows operating System. Stuxnet is capability to reprogram the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and hide the changes.This poses a grave threat to government and military installations. So it has become very important to create a secure operating system environment for such kind of installations.

Facebook adds new security features

Facebook has become a part of life for a majority of its users. We share so much of our personal information on it that we cannot afford to let our account fall prey to hackers and identity thieves. So I would first suggest you to make passwords stronger by using a combination of letters (captial and small) numbers and if possible symbols and please make sure you passwords is at least 8 characters in length.

Its best to create a new Email ID for facebook or use and Email which no one or very few people are aware of,cause your account can only be intruded if the intruder knows your login email in the first place.