Stolen Facebook and Yahoo passwords dumped online

More than two million stolen passwords used for sites such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo and other web services have been posted online.

The details had probably been uploaded by a criminal gang, security experts said.

It is suspected the data was taken from computers infected with malicious software that logged key presses.

It is not known how old the details are - but the experts warned that even out-dated information posed a risk.

"We don't know how many of these details still work," said security researcher Graham Cluley. "But we know that 30-40% of people use the same passwords on different websites.

"That's certainly something people shouldn't do."

Criminal botnet

The site containing the passwords was discovered by researchers working for security firm Trustwave.

In a blog post outlining its findings, the team said it believed the passwords had been harvested by a large botnet - dubbed Pony - that had scooped up information from thousands of infected computers worldwide.

Data on the site showed how many new details were being scraped from users every day

A botnet is a network of machines controlled by criminals thanks to malicious software being installed on to computers without the owner's knowledge.

Often, criminal gangs will use botnets to steal large amounts of personal data, which can then be sold on to others or held to ransom.

In this instance, it was log-in information for popular social networks that featured most heavily.

The site - written in Russian - claimed to offer 318,121 username and password combinations for Facebook. Other services, including Google, Yahoo, Twitter and LinkedIn, all had entries in the database.

Russian-language sites VKontakte and Odnoklassniki also featured.

Chocolate teapot passwords

Trustwave said it had notified the sites and services hit prior to posting the blog entry.

Facebook highlighted that it was not at fault, and that this security risk was due to infected user machines.

"While details of this case are not yet clear, it appears that people's computers may have been attacked by hackers using malware to scrape information directly from their web browsers," a spokesman said in an email.

"People can help protect themselves when using Facebook by activating Login Approvals and Login Notifications in their security settings.

"They will be notified when anyone tries to access their account from an unrecognized browser and new logins will require a unique passcode generated on their mobile phone."

The social network said all of the users found in the database had been put through a password reset process.

Analysis of the passwords by Trustwave showed a familiar picture - the most popular password, found in the database over 15,000 times, was "123456".

Such predictable combinations made passwords completely ineffective, said Mr Cluley.

"It's as much use a chocolate teapot," he said. "Absolutely useless."

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25213846

Mumbai: FIR against man for offensive content on FB against NCP chief

An FIR has been registered against a man in the neighbouring Navi Mumbai for allegedly posting "offensive and humiliating" messages about NCP chief Sharad Pawar on a social networking site, police said on Friday.

No arrests have been made, with police saying appropriate action would be initiated after a proper probe. They also did not reveal the content of the messages posted on Facebook.

According to Nerul police station, an NCP worker saw the posts on Facebook about Pawar and found them "offensive and humiliating". He complained to the police on Wednesday, following which an FIR was registered against one Pravin Pisal.


No arrests have been made, with police saying appropriate action would be initiated after a proper probe.

"The FIR was registered under section 66 A (punishment for sending offensive message through a communication service) of the IT Act. We have not arrested Pisal as we want to first make a thorough investigation into the case," Rajkumar Chaphekar, senior inspector at the police station, told PTI. The officer, however, did not divulge the name of the complainant.

Investigators are taking help of legal experts before initiating any action against the accused, said another officer adding that Pisal would be questioned in this connection.

More: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mumbai-fir-against-man-for-offensive-content-on-fb-against-ncp-chief/434404-37-64.html

WhatsApp Woos And Wows Teens At Facebook’s Expense

While Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has over a billion users worldwide, it will be some time before or if the social network sees its second billion. While this is primarily due to world connectivity issues, a new specter is rearing its head: a loss of users.


Teen’s daily usage of Facebook dropping

Numerous media outlets are reporting that the social network giant is actually seeing a decrease in daily users. Where are they going? When you’re talking about teens, the answer is simple. Teens are moving to WhatsApp, WeChat and other options. While teens continue to use the service, their daily use is dropping noticeably.

According to the UK’s Guardian, the aforementioned apps and others like KakaoTalk, which provide (mostly) free messenger services using a smartphone’s data plan are beginning to sting Facebook.
WhatsApp user base larger than Twitter

These apps promote chat amongst your real friends rather than the online ones that people accumulate. This is done through connecting people who are actually in your phone book. WhatsApp is the worlds largest messaging app with over 350 million daily users. A number considerably bigger than Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)’s 220 million daily users. WhatsApp, which was begun in 2009, shuns advertising and is reaping the benefits.


These other apps also have features like SnapChat which provides a genius private sharing space, while Kakao Talk also includes photo sharing options as well as game and music sharing.
Facebook messenger less dynamic

That being said, the uptake of these Asian upstarts have yet to truly capture the United States’ audience with their interface and advanced messaging utilities. This, however, may not remain the case as more and more people find Facebook’s Messenger less dynamic and make the switch elsewhere.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is clearly upset about this trend and will have to work quite hard to regain kids that don’t view the social media giant as cool anymore. How can it be cool if their parents are finding their way to the platform?

While kids are certainly fickle and may very well return to Facebook, the company needs to address this. Once they’re gone, it’s difficult to get them to return “home.”

More: http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/11/whatsapp-woos-and-wows-teens-at-facebooks-expense/

Twitter Resists Investor Frenzy to Avert Facebook Flop

The contours were familiar: A hot social-media company going public with investors baying to buy its stock. Yet the outcome of Twitter Inc. (TWTR:US)’s initial public offering was far different from Facebook Inc.’s, underscoring the delicate balancing act of pricing IPOs.

Twitter surged 73 percent (TWTR:US) to $44.90 yesterday, the biggest day-one jump for an IPO of more than $1 billlion since 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company received orders for about 30 times as many shares as it offered at the $26 IPO price, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Comparatively, Facebook was little changed in its debut and slumped 11 percent the next trading day.

The dichotomy highlights the difficulty of reconciling the two main goals of an IPO: raising as much money as possible for the company while also ensuring a significant pop for investors in the first day of trading. With Facebook’s first-day flop and subsequent yearlong slump still fresh in their minds, Twitter and its bankers opted for an IPO price that would be quickly surpassed, avoiding the investor backlash that Facebook is only now recovering from.

“It’s very natural when you come into another high-profile deal like this, they’re going to err on the side of caution,” said William “Bill” Hambrecht, chairman and founder of WR Hambrecht + Co. “Nobody wants a Facebook kind of conclusion, because that just hurts everybody.”
Dutch Auction

Hambrecht’s firm offers the Dutch auction method for IPOs, where a price is set by matching supply with price bids directly from prospective buyers. That approach has been used by companies including Google Inc. in its 2004 IPO.

Twitter raised $2.09 billion in its offering, including an over-allotment option. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. led the sale, with help from firms including Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Excluding the over-allotment, they’ll share about $59.2 million for managing the IPO after accepting one of the smallest fee rates for a U.S. share sale this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Twitter, declined to comment on the pricing techniques. Representatives for Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley also declined to comment.

Before the microblogging service kicked off its roadshow last week with management and the underwriters, Twitter set a price range of $17 to $20. The company boosted the range to $23 to $25 on Nov. 4 after attracting more than enough interest to sell all the shares in the offering, people with knowledge of the matter said at the time. San Francisco-based Twitter priced the shares at $26 each Nov. 6, above the increased range.

“Phew!” Anthony Noto, the Goldman Sachs banker who led the IPO, wrote in a message posted on Twitter after trading began.
Range Boost

Facebook increased the number of shares being sold and boosted the price range before its offering last year. The shares priced at the top of the increased range, were almost unchanged in their debut and subsequently dropped. They didn’t return to their IPO level until August of this year. Facebook’s offering was also marred by a trading snag on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Still, if Twitter priced the shares in its IPO at $44.90, where it closed yesterday, it would have raised an additional $1.32 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Pricing ‘Game’

Twitter’s management and its bankers are happy with the IPO’s outcome, according to a person with direct knowledge of their thinking. While they’re not surprised the stock gained so much, because of the overhang in demand, they expect it to drop toward $30 a share during the next three weeks, this person said.

Leaving money on the table was worth it for Twitter, according to Moshe Cohen, professor of finance and economics at Columbia University.

“Pricing an IPO is a game,” Cohen said. “After Facebook, Twitter needed to price conservatively. Otherwise, the risk of what would happen had the IPO not performed well was too big.”

Twitter’s 73 percent jump is more than double the average pop that U.S. technology and Internet companies had in their debuts this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Worldwide, it’s the biggest day-one surge for an IPO that raised more than $1 billion since Alibaba.com Ltd. in 2007, the data show.

At yesterday’s closing price, Twitter is valued at about $25 billion, or 22 times estimated 2014 sales of $1.14 billion, according to analysts’ projections compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 11.2 times for Facebook and a price-to-sales ratio of 11.7 for LinkedIn Corp.

“I don’t think that where the stock trades should impact what management does,” said Deven Parekh, a Twitter investor and managing director at Insight Venture Partners. “They should just execute against their strategy. Companies can’t manage to a stock price.”

More: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-11-08/twitter-resists-investor-frenzy-to-avert-facebook-ipo-flop-redux

YouTube overtakes Facebook as most favourite site among teens

YouTube is overtaking Facebook as the most favourite site among teenagers, a survey has found.

The Futures Company, a research consultancy, interviewed 4,014 teens and found that the most popular site among young people was YouTube.

Nearly 50 percent of teens cited YouTube as their favorite site versus 45.2 percent who favoured Facebook, Mashable reports.

Others on the list include Amazon (27.8 percent), Google (25 percent), Twitter (19.5 percent), Yahoo (12.1 percent), eBay (10.7 percent) and Tumblr (12.3 percent).

Facebook is still the most popular website with twenty somethings at 55 percent, followed by Amazon (37.5 percent).

The report shows modest growth for Twitter among the 12 to 29 group with 16.5 percent naming it as their favorite website vs. 14.1 percent last year.

Facebook's overall numbers went from 57.6 percent to 51.7 percent.

More: http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report-youtube-overtakes-facebook-as-most-favourite-site-among-teens-1914543

Where are Facebook’s missing teens? On YouTube!

Facebook’s missing teens have been found – watching videos on YouTube! The social media giant’s fantastic results last month, where it showed a remarkable bounce back in total quarterly earnings and beat all analyst expectations, were still seen as a cause for concern once CFO David Ebersman announced a decline in the daily usage from its teenage market segment. 

The announcement triggered an immediate loss of confidence by investors, resulting in volatile share prices. Reuters As Firstpost columnist Samir Alam noted earlier, the youthful consumer spending is a large source of earnings for any online platform. Promoting products such as fashion, technology and other lifestyle brands on its platform builds Facebook’s credibility for advertisers. 

According to the report: The last year however has witnessed a drop in Facebook’s standing as the top choice for younger users, falling to 23 percent in 2013 from last years 44 percent according to financial firm Piper Jaffray. The youth consumer spending market makes up more than $200 billion in the United States alone and is of significant interest to investors and companies everywhere. 

Competing with other social networking platforms for younger consumers has also been a challenge over the last year for Facebook and has not given investors any comfort. The current announcement coupled with last weeks policy changes on Facebook, allowing younger teens to publicly share their content on the platform, demonstrates an already in motion strategy by Facebook executives to tackle the declining appeal Facebook seems to have developed amongst the much desired younger demographic.

 Be as it may however, the question that many people were asking was, if not Facebook, then where are those teens? The answer as it turns out, is YouTube! Mashable has got exclusive access to a report by The Futures Company, a research consultancy, which interviewed 4014 teenagers to find the answer to just that question. And according to the report, the most popular site among all teens now is YouTube. Fifty percent of teens surveyed cited YouTube as their favorite site versus 45.2 percent for Facebook. It further added that 41.6 percent of those aged 12 to 15 said Facebook was their favorite website, as compared to 48 percent of teens overall.

 Last year, Facebook was the most popular site among 12- to 15-year-olds. This data if anything, should only worry Facebook more. More so because the report quotes Rob Callender, the director of youth insights at Futures Company as saying that the data suggests parental controls aren’t the issue. Rather,” says Callender, “it appears Facebook might not be creating as many new fanatics as it once did.”

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/tech/where-are-facebooks-missing-teens-on-youtube-1215819.html?utm_source=ref_article

Facebook can predict when you're headed for break up

Scientists have developed a Facebook algorithm which they say can accurately identify who you're dating and when you're in danger of breaking up.

The algorithm developed by a Cornell University professor and a senior Facebook engineer takes advantage of a new metric system called "disperson," which looks at connections between people who have different sets of friends.

Researchers say close friends are likely to share a lot of friends in common, which social scientists call "embeddedness".

The researchers used multiple sets of anonymous data, including a large data set from 1.3 million Facebook users.

They identified with 60 per cent accuracy who was dating whom, much better than the 2 per cent accuracy they'd get from random guessing, 'The Verge' reported.

High dispersion also seems to be correlated with longer relationships, researchers said.

Couples were 50 per cent more likely to break up in the next two months if the dispersion algorithm failed to guess that they were dating, the study found.

Resaerchers also looked at metrics such as how many times a user viewed another person's profile, attendance at the same events, and messages sent.

Dispersion turned out to be the most overall accurate metric for determining romantic relationships.

More: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/facebook-can-predict-when-youre-headed-for-break-up/431214-11.html

Facebook lets beheading clips return to social network

Facebook is allowing videos showing people being decapitated to be posted and shared on its site once again.

The social network had introduced a temporary ban in May following complaints that the clips could cause long-term psychological damage.

The US firm confirmed it now believed its users should be free to watch and condemn such videos. It added it was, however, considering adding warnings.

One suicide prevention charity condemned the move.

"It only takes seconds of exposure to such graphic material to leave a permanent trace - particularly in a young person's mind," said Dr Arthur Cassidy, a former psychologist who runs a branch of the Yellow Ribbon Program in Northern Ireland.

"The more graphic and colourful the material is, the more psychologically destructive it becomes."

Two of the firm's official safety advisers have also criticised the decision.

Facebook allows anyone aged 13 and above to be a member.

Its terms and conditions now state that it will remove photos or videos that "glorify violence" in addition to other banned material, including a woman's "fully exposed breast".

New rules

The BBC was alerted to Facebook's change in policy by a reader who said the firm was refusing to remove a page showing a clip of a masked man killing a woman, which is believed to have been filmed in Mexico.

It was posted last week under the title, Challenge: Anybody can watch this video?

Some Facebook users complained about a video showing a decapitation being allowed to remain on the site

"Remove this video too many young innocent minds out there shouldn't see this!!!" wrote one user in the comments section below.

"This is absolutely horrible, distasteful and needs to be removed... there are too many young minds that can see this. I'm 23 and I'm very disturbed after seeing a couple of seconds of it," wrote another.

The social network later confirmed it was allowing such material to be posted again.

"Facebook has long been a place where people turn to share their experiences, particularly when they're connected to controversial events on the ground, such as human rights abuses, acts of terrorism and other violent events," said a spokeswoman.

"People are sharing this video on Facebook to condemn it. If the video were being celebrated, or the actions in it encouraged, our approach would be different.

"However, since some people object to graphic video of this nature, we are working to give people additional control over the content they see. This may include warning them in advance that the image they are about to see contains graphic content."

The firm also disabled the adverts for third-party products that had been appearing alongside the video.

Advisers concerned

Facebook originally pulled decapitation videos after the Family Online Safety Institute - a member of its Safety Advisory Board - complained that they "crossed a line".

The charity's leader Stephen Balkam told the BBC he was surprised by the latest development.

"I would have expected a heads-up on this," he said.

"I went to have a look at the video and there's no warning label nor is there any condemnatory context. It's just sort of up there and the first image you are presented with is a woman's head being held by a guy.

"I'm very unhappy that these have gone back up and that they have gone up without any warning. First thing tomorrow morning I intend to raise this with Facebook."

Another of the board members, London-based Childnet International, said it also had concerns.

"Such content should be taken down," said its chief executive Will Gardner.

"There is a need to raise issues happening around the world, there is that argument, but some content is horrific.

"We would want to see steps to try and protect people from coming across such content. I'll tell Facebook what our view is, absolutely."

'Profoundly shocking'

Decapitation videos are available elsewhere on the net - including on Google's YouTube - but critics have raised concern that Facebook's news feeds and other sharing functions mean it is particularly adept at spreading such material.

Some psychologists have raised concerns that watching graphic violence can harm the viewer

"I have seen some of these videos - they are profoundly shocking," said John Carr, who sits on the executive board of the UK government's Council on Child Internet Safety.

"Facebook has taken leave of its senses. Those videos will fuel countless nightmares among the young and the sensitive."

The idea of Facebook issuing a blanket ban had, however, concerned some freedom-of-speech campaigners who had suggested it was the responsibility of parents - not the company - to protect children on the internet.

However, the French digital rights group La Quadrature du Net said it was still concerned that Facebook was reserving the right to take down the videos if it took issue with the way they were presented.

"It shows how much Facebook is in power to decide whatever will or will not be expressed through its network," said the organisation's co-founder Jeremie Zimmermann.

"It plays a profoundly anti-democratic role when it makes any such choice, whatever the limits are and whatever the good reasons it uses to make the decision. Only a judicial authority should be able to restrict fundamental freedoms according to the rule of law."

1 in 3 won't spend time with their Facebook friends in person

One in three people admit they do not like their Facebook friends enough to spend time with them in real life, a new survey has found.

In fact, people would only spend time with an average of ten per cent of people on their list of Facebook friends.

Users of the social networking site are reluctant to delete people from their friend list because they are too scared to miss out on gossip, according to the survey of 2,863 adults over the age of 18.

Some even dislike quite a few of their so-called mates and only remained connected through Facebook to see their photos, in case they needed to contact them or because they were related, 'metro.co.uk' reported.

Few people felt intimidated by the prospect of having to cut a relationship online, with one in four frightened by the potential consequences of doing so.

Around a fifth of the people surveyed admitted they used Facebook as a way to spy on their kids and other family members.

"It seems with the results of this study, the old saying about keeping your friends close, but your enemies even closer, is definitely alive and well even in today's society with our reliance on the internet," said George Charles, marketing director of VoucherCodesPro in UK, which conducted the study.

Credits: indianexpress

Facebook asks if you 'really' like it

In a first-ever self examination survey, Facebook will be gauging its users’ attitudes towards the site, and how the attitudes evolve over time.

The social media giant has formed its first ‘feedback panel’, where people will be surveyed for six months to check their level of satisfactions with the site and why they change.

According to Huffington Post, the site will be analyzing how users respond to ads and stories in their News Feed in a bid to learn which ads make its members happiest.

Facebook’s product manager for ads in News Feed, Fidji Simo said that the site wants to understand how users feel about ads, so that as the company grows its business, it is able to maintain the right balance between the advertisers’ needs and the users’ experience.

The site will be inviting certain members of its community and the participants will also be asked if they observe variation in the quality and quantity of ads delivered to them, and how they predict their Facebook usage might change in the future.

As Facebookers are the most irritated by ads, according to the ACSI 2013 survey; developer of the feedback panel and a user experience researcher at Facebook, Judd Antin explained that the real purpose of the survey is to connect changes in attitudes over time to the experience which might be driving those changes.

The report said that the first feedback panel will be limited to English-speaking users in the US, though it will include a cross-section of people who are representative of Facebook’s US population as a whole.

Credits: dnaindia

1.2bn Facebook users' photos on a single page

Facebook has more than a billion users globally and though they all may be part of the same network, all members of the social network were never brought together. Until now.

A new project called The Faces of Facebook byfreelance designer Natalia Rojas brings together the photos of all Facebook members on the same canvas. Rojas says that no privacy rules have been violated by her project as it does not store any private information, photos or real names.

See the faces of all 1.2 billion Facebook users, including yours

(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)

Curious about the more than 1.2 billion people currently on Facebook? A new Web site lets you zoom in on each one.

Designed by self-dubbed creative technologist Natalia Rojas, The Faces of Facebook starts off with a running count of Facebook's growing membership, with each person represented by a tiny dot. Click anywhere amid the sea of dots, and the page drills down to reveal thumbnails of the faces of a handful of Facebook users. Click on any thumbnail, and that person's public profile pops up.

You can also find your own profile among the countless others. Just connect to Facebook from the page, and you should see your thumbnail nestled nearby those of fellow members.

For Facebook users concerned about privacy, Rojas said the site doesn't store anyone's private information, pictures, or names. Instead, she sees her project as a harmless way to show the 1.2 billion Facebook profile pictures and organize them in chronological order. Indeed, if you zoom in on the very first thumbnail, you'll catch Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as Member No. 1.

Credits: cnet

Sharing Blog Posts on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus

Below are some very simple steps which you have to perform.

1. Go to dlvr.it and sign up for an account.

2. Now add your feedburner feed URL in the given box as shown in below images. If you don’t have feedburner feed URL then read this post to setup feedburner feed for blog.

3. Now choose your destination where you want to share your feed. For example: I choose twitter.

4. Once you click on twitter icon you will redirect to twitter page. Enter your twitter username and password and click on “Authorize App” button.

5. Once the process is complete your twitter account will be added in your dlvr.it dashboard. It means now your blog feed is ready for automatic share on twitter. If you want to add more social media sites like facebook or Google plus then simply click on “Add Route” button as shown in below image.

6. Once you click on Add Route button, you have to add the source and destination. Choose your existing feed URL as source and select social media site of your choice as your destination.

7. Once you setup all these things you will be ready to share your blog feeds on facebook, twitter, Google plus etc.

Automatically Publish Blogger Posts To Facebook,Twitter And Other Social Sites

Social media plays an important role in improving any blog's SEO.That's why you may watch social media gadgets almost on every blog/website.If you have enough number of subscribers on social sites then just automatically publish your posts on social sites and get the traffic.Today I am giving a tutorial about automatically posting on facebook,twitter and some other social sites with using dlvr.it service which is free of cost.I am also using this service to publish my blogger posts facebook and twitter.The reason behind to choose dlvr.it is it is very easy to use and install.You can on-off auto publishing anytime and very easily.Lets see how to use it.

Automatically Publish Blogger Posts On Social Sites

• First go to dlvr.it
• Signup with giving your email address and choosing password.

• Now go to your inbox and confirm your email address first
• You will redirect to another page here you have to provide your feeds address in below format

http://feeds.feedburner.com/FEEDBURNER USERNAME HERE

• Click on twitter icon and you will redirect to twitter
• Give your twitter's profile's username and password and hit "Authorize App" button.Now your posts will automatically publish on twitter.

• Now click on facebook icon.

• You will redirect to facebook page.Log in to your facebook account from which you are managing your fanpage and select your fanpage.
• Customize your services as you wish and save your changes.

That's all about auto posting on social networking.

See more at: http://www.helperblogger.com/2012/05/automatically-publish-blogger-posts-to.html#sthash.uZGzPFl1.dpuf

Amazing Photos in the World

There are lot of amazing photos gathered in the internet word.

https://www.facebook.com/photos2013

This is one of the best FB page where you get good collection of those. Enjoy.

Different for photo lovers , Amazing photos form around the world