Mastodon: different social network, additional risks

Credit to Author: Zammis Clark| Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2017 15:00:18 +0000

Learn about the additional risks you can face when using Mastodon, a social network with important differences to traditional ones.

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Twitter pulls lawsuit after feds back down

Credit to Author: Martyn Williams| Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2017 11:56:00 -0700

Twitter has withdrawn a lawsuit against the U.S. government after the Customs and Border Protection backed down on a demand that the social media outlet reveal details about a user account critical of the agency.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, contended that the customs agency was abusing its investigative power. The customs agency has the ability to get private user data from Twitter when investigating cases in areas such as illegal imports, but this case was far from that.

The target of the request was the @alt_uscis account, one of a number of “alt” accounts that have sprung up on Twitter since the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The accounts are critical of the new administration and most claim to be run by current or former staff members of government agencies.

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Facebook loses appeal over New York search warrants

Credit to Author: John Ribeiro| Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2017 04:12:00 -0700

Facebook’s appeal against 381 warrants for information from the accounts of its users was rejected by a  court in New York  on the grounds that earlier orders refusing to quash the warrants issued in a criminal proceeding could not be appealed.

The decision by the New York State Court of Appeals did not address key issues of whether the broad searches were unconstitutional, and whether internet service providers like Facebook have standing to challenge such warrants on behalf of their users, particularly when they are served with gag orders that prevent providers from informing subscribers about the warrants.

“This case undoubtedly implicates novel and important substantive issues regarding the constitutional rights of privacy and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and the parameters of a federal statute establishing methods by which the government may obtain certain types of information,” wrote Judge Leslie E. Stein, writing for the majority.

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After political Twitter bot revelation, are companies at risk?

Credit to Author: Sharon Gaudin| Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2017 03:00:00 -0700

With reports of Russia using social media and bots to push fake news to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, questions are arising over how these same tactics could be used against an enterprise.

“Twitter bots could absolutely be used against a company,” said Dan Olds, an analyst with OrionX. “Someone using bots could manufacture a fake groundswell of opinion against a company or a product.”

The subject of Twitter bots has made headlines since federal investigations into Russia’s interference with the presidential election unearthed evidence that the Kremlin used chatbots, particularly on Twitter, to seed fake news stories in order to confuse discussions and taint certain candidates, especially Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

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3 Steps To Take For Social Media Account Security

Credit to Author: Mark Nunnikhoven (Vice President, Cloud Research)| Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2017 00:57:57 +0000

Social media is a tough place for companies. That’s understandable. The idea of connecting people to each other breaks down when one of those people is a major multi-national brand. But there is a place on social for companies and when it’s handled well, it’s amazing. Unfortunately, as much as positive examples show personality and…

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Twitter accounts hacked, Twitter Counter steps forward as culprit

Credit to Author: Peter Sayer| Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2017 07:37:00 -0700

Twitter Counter, a third-party analytics service, appears once again to have provided a gateway for hackers to post messages to high-profile Twitter accounts.

An unlikely number of Twitter users suddenly learned to speak Turkish on Wednesday, posting an inflammatory message in the language replete with Nazi swastikas.

Among those posting the message were the Twitter accounts of Forbes magazine, the Atlanta Police Department, and Amnesty International, one of the few hacked accounts one might expect to actually speak Turkish.

Fears that these accounts had all been hacked were quickly allayed, when Twitter identified a third-party app as being to blame.

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Twitter Counter hacked: Hundreds of high-profile Twitter accounts hijacked

Credit to Author: Darlene Storm| Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2017 06:16:00 -0700

Twitter seemed to temporarily be overtaken by tweets featuring swastikas, Turkish flags and Nazi references after third-party analytics app Twitter Counter was hacked.

It’s unclear how many Twitter accounts were affected – hundreds or thousands – considering Twitter Counter claims to have more than two million users who linked their Twitter accounts to its service for the purpose of providing statistics and tracking responses to tweets.

Infosec journalist Graham Cluley apologized “for the Nazi spam” after his account was hijacked. There was a rush of people scrubbing their accounts as Amnesty International, Duke University, Forbes, Reuters Japan, BBC North America, UNICEF USA, the UK Department of Health, the CEO of Sprint, bitcoin wallet Blockchain, the Atlanta Police Department, Starbucks Argentina, the European Parliament, Nike Spain, sports stars, celebrities and many others were compromised and also spewed Nazi spam.

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