Posts Tagged ‘WikiLeaks’

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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/

Related Articles
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  • Osama Dead – Censored Video Leaked Wikileaks Video Facebook Spam (techie-buzz.com)
  • Osama bin Laden scams on Facebook (securitybloggersnetwork.com)
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  • The power of Facebook,already Bin Laden execution posted .Watch with caution as it is a scam (rajcairnsreport.wordpress.com)
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Tags: Al Qaeda Pakistan

Julian Assange: Facebook Is a Spy Machine

May 2nd, 2011
Julian Assange at New Media Days 09 in Copenhagen.

Image via Wikipedia

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange touched on the subject of social networking in an interview with Russia Today, calling Facebook “the most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented.”

Assange said he believes Facebook is a giant database of names and records about people, maintained voluntarily by its users but developed for U.S. intelligence to use.

“Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies, and building this database for them,” Assange said.

While Assange doesn’t claim that Facebook is actually run by U.S. intelligence agencies, the fact that they have access to its records is — in his view — dangerous enough.

“Now, is the case that Facebook is run by U.S. intelligence? No, it’s not like that. It’s simply that U.S. intelligence is able to bring to bear legal and political pressure to them,” he said.

Assange also weighed in on the subject of secret government cables released by WikiLeaks, claiming the really important ones haven’t been exposed yet.

“We only released secret, classified, confidential material. We didn’t have any top secret cables. The really embarrassing stuff, the really serious stuff wasn’t in our collection to release. But it is still out there,” he said.

At the end of the interview, Assange trashed the media industry, claiming it is heavily distorting reality to the public and doing too little to prevent wars and remove corrupt governments from power. “It really is my opinion that the media, in general, are so bad, we have to question whether the world would be better off without them altogether,” he said.

Source -: http://mashable.com

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  • Assange told of ASIO snooping (theage.com.au)
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Tags: Julian Assange RT (TV network) Russia Today

Former WikiLeaks Partners to Start Openleaks

February 15th, 2011

With the big brother closing in on beleaguered WikiLeaks architect Julian Assange, his former partners at the project are deserting him for a similar project. Christened Openleaks, the new non-profit organisation is founded by the former associates of Assange at WikiLeaks. The erstwhile partners claim, on the condition of anonymity, that Assange’s high-handed approach is what made them break off into a separate entity.

Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter quoted one of the founders, “As a short-term goal, this is about completing the technical infrastructure and ensuring that the organization continues to be democratically governed by all its members, rather than limited to one group or individual.” The ex-partners claim Assange’s personal problems disrupted WikiLeaks from its goals. They contended that his experiences from the past were motivating his autocratic approach in pursuing issues without taking the collective into consideration.

In a clear departure from WikiLeaks’ ethos, Openleaks will not directly publish the exposes. It will instead pass on the same to independent media entities. Openleaks intends to position itself as a neutral mediator with no political agenda. According to them, this will shield them from government wrath. The basic idea behind the move is to place the burden of editing and authenticating the information to third parties. The governments and other entities at the receiving will then have to contend with the independent media, which Openleaks believes would be more resilient against such pressures.

Related Articles:
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  • Former WikiLeaks Colleagues Forming New Web Site, OpenLeaks – New York Times (news.google.com)
  • OpenLeaks Founder ‘Crippled’ WikiLeaks (yro.slashdot.org)
  • A WikiLeaks Split: Openleaks.Org to Launch Site Soon (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)
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Tags: Dagens Nyheter Independent media Julian Assange Non-profit organization Openleaks Politics Sweden

Twitter To Be Subpoenaed Over WikiLeaks

January 11th, 2011

Social Networking Site Twitter has received a subpoena from a US federal court demanding account details of four of its users including Julian Assange, for their involvement in leaking out sensitive data relating to US government.

The department of Justice in the United States have Subpoenaed twitter accounts of Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of supplying the site with classified information; Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, as well as Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and US programmer Jacob Appelbaum, both of whom have previously worked with Wikileaks.

According to the Subpoena dated December 14, the US investigators are requesting addresses, screen names, telephone numbers and credit card and bank account numbers, of user activity dating back to November 1, 2009, those involved in the Wikileaks documents leak case.

Julian Assange Immediately posted the following message on Twitter: ”If the Iranian govt asked for DMs [direct messages] of Iranian activists, State Dept would be all over this violation of ‘Internet freedom’ #doublestandards.’

Assange also added that Google and Facebook may have received similar requests.

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Tags: Julian Assange

WikiLeaks’ Protected By World War II Bunker

December 11th, 2010

Though Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is behind bars, his information is secure in a underground World War II bunker.

Photo’s of the underground vault where world’s best secrets are kept and “leaked”, have been released. According to the London daily mail, dubbed the Pionen White Mountains, the nuclear bunker, located in Stockholm is protected under 1.6-feet-thick solid steel doors, looks like a James Bond movie set.

Owned by a company called Bahnhof, the high-security computer storage facility in Stockholm showcase a “floating” conference room, designer furniture, decorative waterfalls and engines from old German U-boats that serve as backup generators, all housed in an old Cold War nuclear bunker.

The founder Mr. Karlung who spoke to BBC said he wasn’t afraid of reprisal from the U.S government for storing the secrets as he compared his job to that of the postal service. You do not blame the postman for the content of the letter – nor do you open the letter if you are a postal delivery person.

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Tags: WikiLeaks future WikiLeaks security