Posts Tagged ‘Osama Bin Laden’

Dad catches daughters on webcam: Beware viral Facebook video link

May 15th, 2011
Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook is being hit by another viral message, spreading between users’ walls disguised as a link to a saucy video.

The messages, which are spreading rapidly, use a variety of different links but all claim to be a movie of a dad catching his daughters making a video on their webcam:

Dad catches daughters on webcam message

[VIDEO] DAD CATCHES DAUGHTERS ON WEBCAM [OMGGGG].AVI
[LINK]
two naughty girls get caught in the WORST moment while making a vid on their webcam! omg!!

The messages also tag some of the victims’ Facebook friends, presumably in an attempt to spread the links more quickly across the social network.

If you make the mistake of clicking on the link you are taken to a webpage which shows a video thumbnail of two scantily clad young women on a bed. The page urges you to play the video, however doing so will post the Facebook message on your own wall as a “Like” and pass it to your friends.

Unfortunately, the new security improvements announced by Facebook this week fail to give any protection or warning about the attack.

Dad catches daughters on webcam message

When I tested the scam Sophos was presented with a (fake) message telling me that my Adobe Flash plugin had crashed and  needed to download a codec.

Dad catches daughters on webcam message

Codec downloadUsers should remember that they should only ever download updates to Adobe Flash from Adobe’s own website – not from anywhere else on the internet as you could be tricked into installing malware.

Ultimately, you may find your browser has been redirected to a webpage promoting a tool for changing your Facebook layout, called Profile Stylez and – on Windows at least – may find you have been prompted to install a program called FreeCodec.exe which really installs the Profile Stylez browser extension.

ProfileStylez

It’s certainly disappointing to see Facebook’s new security features fail at the first major outbreak – clearly there’s much more work which needs to be done to prevent these sorts of messages spreading rapidly across the social network, tricking users into clicking on links which could be designed to cause harm.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

  • Dad catches daughters on webcam: Beware viral Facebook video link (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Facebook Scam Alert: Look what happens when Father catches Daughter on Webcam! (techie-buzz.com)
  • What is FouTube? Viral Facebook clickjacking video scams explored (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • ALERT: Avoid ‘Father Catches Daughter On Webcam’ (allfacebook.com)
  • Beware of Fake Osama bin laden links on web! (trak.in)
  • Beware Video Osama Traps on Facebook (socyberty.com)
  • ““Shocking New Video of Osama Bin Laden’s Death†Facebook Spam” and related posts (teck.in)
  • Photo tagged as a Facebook bunnygirl? Beware viral scam (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Osama Bin Laden death video scam spreads virally on Facebook (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Osama Bin Laden death video scam spreads virally on Facebook (securitybloggersnetwork.com)
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Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week ( 4/29 – 5/5)

May 8th, 2011
Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

Last week, Mashable predicted that the Royal Wedding would be the number one trending topic this time around. And we would have been right, if not for a bit of news that broke last Sunday.

The shots that took down Osama bin Laden were shots heard ’round the Twitterverse. A mind-boggling record of 12.4 million tweets per hour (5,106 tweets per second around the time of President Obama’s speech) helped to place all topics connected to the biggest news story of the year at number one this week.

It should be noted that despite the intensity of the bin Laden news, the Royal Wedding did come in at a close second.

To see the full list, check out the chart below. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart. The aggregate is based on Twitter’s own trending algorithm, and does not necessarily reflect raw tweet volume.

You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section.


Top Twitter Trends This Week: 4/29 – 5/5


Rank
Topic
Intensity
Description
#1
Osama bin Laden
3
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by a small team of Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan. President Obama announced the news late Sunday night (ET).
#2
Royal Wedding
3
Prince William and Catherine Elizabeth “Kate” Middleton were married on April 29, 2011 at Westminster Abbey.
#3
Harry Potter Movie/Book Series
2
On Twitter, Harry Potter fans were talking about Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Molly Weasley, Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Bellatrix Lestrange, Fred Weasley and Sirius Black.
#4
Justin Bieber
2
Justin Bieber accidentally tweeted #pssst when he was trying to tweet #pissed instead, thus causing this to trend. People are tweeting secrets to one another or showing reasons why someone is “pissed.” Users asked their followers if they prefer Justin Bieber or Bruno Mars.
#5
Soccer/Football
1
Much discussed football topics include Sunday’s upcoming Manchester United vs. Chelsea match, Lionel Messi, the retirement of Sami Tuomas Hyypiä, the Queens Park Rangers fault, the Champions League match Manchester United v Schalke and the Derby between two massive soccer clubs from Brazil: Grêmio Foot-ball Porto Alegrense and Sport Club Internacional.
#6
Star Wars Day
1
Science fiction fans celebrated Star Wars on the 4th of May, tweeting the phrase “May the Fourth be with you!”
#7
Lady Gaga
1
Lady Gaga fans were excited about the release of “Judas,” her latest music videol. And it’s not clear how or when it started, but users are tweeting “Lord Voldemort + Lady Gaga = Lord Gaga.”
#8
Chris Brown
1
On Thursday, R&B singer Chris Brown turned 22 years old and his fans sent him good wishes.
#9
NBA Playoffs
1
Fans were most vocal about the Miami Heat meeting the Boston Celtics in the NBA Conference Semi-Finals. Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls was announced the winner of the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the 2010-11 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award.
#10
Owl City
1
Indonesian Tweeters were excited over an announcement that the band Owl City would be playing a concert in Jakarta on October 28. Also, fans were saying how much they liked the Owl City song “Vanilla Twilight.”

Data aggregate courtesy of What the Trend.

Source :- http://mashable.com/

  • See How One Man’s Tweet Told The World Osama Bin Laden Was Dead (businessinsider.com)
  • Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART] (fakeiitian.com)
  • 10 Historic Tweets That Captivated the World (mashable.com)
  • The Power of a Single Tweet: How the Bin Laden News Broke on Twitter (newsgrange.com)
  • Here Are The Non-Essential (Read: Celebrity) Tweets Inspired By Osama bin Laden’s Death (businessinsider.com)
  • A Twitter Record That Has Nothing to do with Justin Bieber (techland.time.com)
  • Osama bin Laden’s Last Tweet (humpdayreport.wordpress.com)
  • Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART] (mashable.com)
  • Rashard Mendenhall Loses Champion Endorsement Over Osama bin Laden Tweets (tipdrillzonline.wordpress.com)
  • Solomon: Athletes’ tweets are for the birds (chron.com)
  • L.A.’s Twitter trending: embarrassing? (laobserved.com)
  • “Osama Bin Laden’s Death as Told by Social Media and Search Engines” and related posts (wordstream.com)
  • Osama Bin Laden Dead – Top Search On Google (seroundtable.com)
  • One Twitter user Live blogs from Osama Bin Laden’s raid (chatootsboots.wordpress.com)
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Osama Shoot down video scam spreads on Facebook

May 4th, 2011
A still of 2004 Osama bin Laden video

Image via Wikipedia

Facebook users are being tempted to click on links to what purports to be a video of Osama bin Laden being shot, in the latest in a series of scams exploiting the hot news story of the Al Qaeda leader’s death.

The messages appear as follows:

Osama shoot down video

Watch the Osama Shoot down video

Osama Dead - Censored Video Leaked
on.fb.me
Osama is dead, watch this exclusive CNN video which was censored by Obama Administration due to level of violence, a must watch. Leaked by Wikileaks.

Clicking on the link, however, will not instantly show you some sensational footage of US Navy Seals attacking Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.

Instead, you’re told you will have to take an online survey.

Osama shoot down video scam

That should be enough to set your alarm bells ringing – as survey scams are a continuing problem on Facebook, earning scammers commission with every survey they manage to trick users into completing.

What’s most interesting about this scam is that they trick you into cutting-and-pasting a line of JavaScript into your web browser‘s address bar.

Not that you’ll realise that you’re doing that, of course. As far as you know all you’re doing is following a sequence of instructions and keyboard presses before you watch the video.

Osama shoot down video scam

But any time you paste a script into your browser’s address bar, you’re effectively running code written by the scammers without the safety net of protection.

Script

Before you know it, you’ll be sharing the news of the “Osama Shoot down video” with all of your Facebook friends, and the scam will be spreading virally.

My guess is that you don’t want to make it so easy for the scammers to run their scripts on your browser – so don’t fall for scams like this.

Be very careful not to be fooled by scams related to Osama bin Laden’s death, not just on Facebook but on other parts of the internet too. Such a big news story always seems to attract the interest of fraudsters and malware authors.

If you want to keep up-to-date on the latest scams, and are a member of Facebook, don’t forget to join the Sophos Facebook page to keep informed about the latest security news.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/

  • Osama Shoot down video scam spreads on Facebook (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Osama Dead – Censored Video Leaked Wikileaks Video Facebook Spam (techie-buzz.com)
  • Osama bin Laden scams on Facebook (securitybloggersnetwork.com)
  • Osama Bin Laden death video scam spreads virally on Facebook (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Osama Bin Laden death video scam spreads virally on Facebook (securitybloggersnetwork.com)
  • Scam warning: Shocking NEW VIDEO of Osama Bin Ladens DEATH!! (zdnet.com)
  • WARNING: Fotos_Osama_Bin_Laden.exe Email Attachment Is A Banking Trojan (techie-buzz.com)
  • Osama Bin Death Video Scam Spreading on Facebook (techie-buzz.com)
  • Scammers Use Osama Bin Laden’s Death To Spread Malware On Facebook, Google (huffingtonpost.com)
  • The power of Facebook,already Bin Laden execution posted .Watch with caution as it is a scam (rajcairnsreport.wordpress.com)
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Osama bin Laden dead – so watch for the spams and scams

May 3rd, 2011
A still of 2004 Osama bin Laden video

Image via Wikipedia

Google‘s top-trending Anglophone search term right now is, understandably, “osama bin laden dead”.

Google officially describes its hotness (you couldn’t make this stuff up) as volcanic.

The short version, according to the LA Times, is that bin Laden was tracked to a “comfortable mansion surrounded by a high wall in a small town near Islamabad, Pakistan‘s capital.”

For bin Laden, it seems, the comfort is no more. “On Sunday, a ‘small team’ of Americans raided the compound. After a firefight, [President Obama], they killed Bin Laden.” Apparently, DNA tests have confirmed Bin Laden’s identity.

And there you have it.

Now you know the basics – but watch out for the links you’re likely to come across in email or on social networking sites offering you additional coverage of this newsworthy event.

Many of the links you see will be perfectly legitimate links. But at least some are almost certain to be dodgy links, deliberately distributed to trick you into hostile internet territory.

If in doubt, leave it out!

Sometimes, poisoned content is rather obvious. The links in this spam captured by SophosLabs, for example, give the impression of going to a news site:

The links don’t go anywhere of the sort, of course. Wherever you click, you end up finding out how to replace your tired old windows:

But even well-meant searches using your favourite search engine might end in tears.

What’s commonly called “Black-Hat Search Engine Optimisation” (BH-SEO) means that cybercrooks can often trick the secret search-ranking algorithms of popular search engines by feeding them fake pages to make their rotten content seem legitimate, and to trick you into visiting pages which have your worst interests at heart.

Well-known topics that have been widely written about for years are hard to poison via BH-SEO. The search engines have a good historical sense of which sites are likely to be genuinely relevant if your interest is searches like “Commonwealth of Australia“, “Canadian Pacific Railway” or “Early history of spam”.

But a search term which is incredibly popular but by its very nature brand new – “Japanese tsunami”, “William and Kate engagement”, “Kate Middleton wedding dress” or, of course, “Osama bin Laden dead” – doesn’t give the search engines much historical evidence to go on.

Of course, the search engines want to be known for being highly responsive to new trends – that means more advertising revenue for them, after all – and that means, loosely speaking, that they have to take more of a chance on accuracy.

What can you do to keep safe?

* Don’t blindly trust links you see online, whether in emails, on social networking sites, or from searches. If the URL and the subject matter don’t tie up in some obvious way, give it a miss.

* Use an endpoint security product which offers some sort of web filtering so you get early warning of poisoned content. (Sophos Endpoint Security and Control and the Sophos Web Appliance are two examples.)

* If you go to a site expecting to see information on a specific topic but get redirected somewhere unexpected – to a “click here for a free security scan” page, for instance, or to a survey site, or to a “download this codec program to view the video” dialog – then get out of there at once. Don’t click further. You’re being scammed.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

  • Osama bin Laden dead – so watch for the spams and scams (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Osama bin Laden scams on Facebook (securitybloggersnetwork.com)
  • Osama Bin Laden’s Death Targeted by Malware Creators [ALERT] (mashable.com)
  • The Death Of Osama Bin Laden (injesus.wordpress.com)
  • (Video) Corbett: ‘Osama Bin Laden a CIA asset’ (politicore.wordpress.com)
  • Osama bin Laden Has Been Killed; President Obama Announces Osama bin Laden has be Killed (sugarslam.com)
  • Osama Bin Laden Dead – Top Search On Google (seroundtable.com)
  • Scammers Use Osama Bin Laden’s Death To Spread Malware On Facebook, Google (huffingtonpost.com)
  • Why that photo of a dead Osama bin Laden is a photoshopped fake (promoteliberty.wordpress.com)
  • Scam warning: Shocking NEW VIDEO of Osama Bin Ladens DEATH!! (zdnet.com)
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Bin Laden’s Death Sparks Record 12.4 Million Tweets Per Hour

May 3rd, 2011
Follow me on Twitter logo

Image via Wikipedia

The death of Osama Bin Laden was one of the most tweeted events in history — and generated the highest sustained rate of tweets ever.

Twitter has released updated statistics on the usage of its platform last night. Previously, the social media company reported that more than 4,000 tweets were sent per second during the beginning and the end of Obama’s speech. It now says the real number of tweets was about 25% higher.

At 11:00 p.m. ET, just before Obama’s speech, users generated 5,106 tweets per second, the highest single volume of tweets during the night. At 11:45 p.m., just when he finished his speech, Twitter users were sending 5,008 tweets per second.

“Last night saw the highest sustained rate of Tweets ever,” Twitter announced in a tweet. “From 10:45 – 2:20am ET, there was an average of 3,000 Tweets per second.” That equates to a whopping 27,900,000 tweets in just two hours and 35 minutes.

Between 10:45 p.m. ET and 12:30 a.m. ET, the company says its users averaged 3,440 tweets per second. At its peak, Twitter delivered an average of 12,384,000 tweets per hour.

The new numbers offer a glimpse into just how momentous Osama Bin Laden’s demise was. The event surpasses the 3,283 tweets sent per second during Japan’s victory over Denmark in the World Cup, and the 4,064 tweets sent per second during one of the final moments of this year’s Super Bowl.

However, the record for most tweets sent in the same second is still 6,939 — which happened during the most recent New Year in Japan..

Update: Twitter has released a graph depicting Twitter activity last night:

  • Bin Laden’s Death Sparks Record 12.4 Million Tweets Per Hour [STATS] (mashable.com)
  • Twitter hits record on Osama bin Laden story (lostremote.com)
  • Bin Laden’s death sparks 12.4 Million tweets an hour (chatootsboots.wordpress.com)
  • Osama bin Laden’s Death Sets New Record on Twitter (foxnews.com)
  • Twitter Sees Highest “Sustained” Activity Ever In Wake Of Osama Bin Laden News (searchengineland.com)
  • Osama Takedown Sets Twitter Record (wired.com)
  • Bin Laden’s Death Sets New Twitter Record for Tweets-Per-Second (blippitt.com)
  • Obama’s bin Laden Speech Triggers 4,000 Tweets Per Second (textually.org)
  • The map of how bin Laden news spread through the Twittersphere (venturebeat.com)
  • Osama bin Laden vs. Michael Jackson: Whose Death Got More Twitter Chatter? (blogs.sfweekly.com)
  • Osama bin Laden death sets Twitter record (news-briefs.ew.com)
  • Osama bin Laden’s Death Sets New Record on Twitter (omg.yahoo.com)
  • Bin Laden Death Sets Twitter Record (Sorry, Super Bowl XLV) (perezhilton.com)
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