Palestinian hacker earns job offers

The stunt cost the 30-year-old Palestinian the bounty, but earned him praise and numerous job offer.

YATTA, West Bank (AP) - After discovering a privacy bug on Facebook, unemployed Palestinian programmer Khalil Shreateh said he just wanted to collect the traditional $500 bounty the social network giant offers to those who voluntarily expose its glitches.

But when Facebook ignored his first two reports, Shreateh took his message to the top and hacked into CEO Mark Zuckerberg s personal page to prove his point.

"Sorry for breaking your privacy," he wrote the Facebook founder, "I has no other choice to make after all the reports I sent to Facebook team ... as you can see I am not in your friend list and yet i can post to your timeline."

The stunt cost the 30-year-old Palestinian the bounty, but earned him praise and numerous job offers.

for being able to get to the boss of the world s most ubiquitous social network.

Shreateh, who lives near the West Bank city of Hebron and has been unable to find a job since graduating two years ago with a degree in information technology, told Facebook that he found a way that allowed anyone to post on anyone else s wall. "I told them that you have a vulnerability and you need to close it," he told The Associated Press. "I wasn t looking to be famous. I just wanted to make a point to Mark (Zuckerberg)."

In a message posted to the Hacker News, a user-driven security news site, Facebook software engineer Matthew Jones said the initial report was poorly worded, although he acknowledged that the company should have pressed for more information.

"As a few other commenters have pointed out, we get hundreds of reports every day," Jones wrote. "Many of our best reports come from people whose English isn t great though this can be challenging, it s something we work with just fine and we have paid out over $1 million to hundreds of reporters. However, many of the reports we get are nonsense or misguided, and even those ... provide some modicum of reproduction instructions."

Nevertheless, he said, "we should have pushed back asking for more details here."

He went on to say that Shreateh would not be paid from Facebook s bounty program because he d violated the company s terms of service namely by posting items to the Facebook pages of users he should not have had access to.

"The more important issue here is with how the bug was demonstrated using the accounts of real people without their permission. Exploiting bugs to impact real users is not acceptable behavior for a white hat," he said, using an industry term for ethical security experts.

Jones added that the bug was fixed Thursday. Facebook declined to comment beyond the post.

The bug and Facebook s response to it has become a talking point in information security circles, with many speculating that the Palestinian could have helped himself to thousands of dollars had he chosen to sell the information on the black market.

Shreateh said he was initially disappointed by the Facebook response but that after being inundated by job offers from all over the world he is pleased with how things worked out.

"I am looking for a good job to start a normal life like everybody," he said. "I am so proud to be the Palestinian who discovered that exploit in Facebook."

Source: http://dunyanews.tv/index.php/en/Technology/188551-Palestinian-hacker-earns-job-offers

Tired of helping the CIA? Quit Facebook, Venezuela minister urges

A Venezuelan government minister on Wednesday urged citizens to shut Facebook accounts to avoid being unwitting informants for the US Central Intelligence Agency, referring to recent revelations about US surveillance programs. Edward Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor who is stuck in a Moscow airport while seeking to avoid capture by the United States, last month leaked details about American intelligence agencies obtaining information from popular websites including Facebook. "Comrades: cancel your Facebook accounts, you've been working for free as CIA informants. Review the Snowden case!" wrote Prisons Minister Iris Varela on her Twitter account. Venezuela has offered to provide asylum for Snowden, but he has not responded and appears unable to leave the transit zone of Sheremetyevo International Airport. He exposed a program known as Prism that relied on customer data supplied by major technology companies. "Countries and people that have fallen victim to gringo spying should sue the United States to ensure fair compensation. We're going to bankrupt the US economy!" wrote Varela, known for radical rhetoric and ardent support of the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.  Source: http://samaa.tv/newsdetail.aspx?ID=68738&CID=2

Venice tourists get shock bill at outdoor coffee bar

ROME: Tourists going to Venice beware - and make sure you read the fine print. Everyone knows the lagoon city can be expensive but seven tourists from Rome got a bitter surprise when their bill for four coffees and three liqueurs at an outdoor cafe topped 100 euros ($130). The scene of the mishap was the famed Caffe Lavena in St. Mark's Square, where 19th century German composer Richard Wagner, who died in Venice in 1883, sat to have his morning coffee every day when he lived in the city. What the Roman tourists - who posted their receipt on Facebook - apparently did not notice when looking at the menu was the "music surcharge" of six euros per person. It added up to 42 euros, or nearly half of the bill. The owners of the famous cafe, which opened in 1750 and where clients are served by white-jacketed waiters as a chamber orchestra plays, defended themselves. They said all the prices (six euros for a coffee and 10 for a liqueur) as well as the music surcharge, are printed on the menus. "If they found the prices too high, they could have got up and gone somewhere else, like many people do, or have the coffee standing at the bar inside, where it costs one euro," Lavena's manager, Massimo Milanese, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Source: http://samaa.tv/newsdetail.aspx?ID=70509&CID=2

Time To Say Goodbye To Windows XP

We’ve all been Windows users at some point. Even many hardcore Mac users today probably have a strong history with the much maligned operating system. One thing that everyone will probably agree with is this: Windows XP is one of the best operating systems that Microsoft has served us consumers. And now, it is time to say goodbye to Windows XP.

It’s official. Support for Windows XP is ending on the 8th of August 2014. As is the norm with these things, users are given ample time to make the switch if necessary. For individual users, this should be an easy fix. The chances are you’re using Windows 8 already anyway.

For businesses, though, especially the small to medium sized ones, the one-year breathing space might be more than necessary. After all, it’s not only about changing operating systems. Hardware upgrades and new purchases may also be called for. Then there’s the learning curve to get used to the changes.

Of course, one may opt to stick with Windows XP till their device dies on them. Microsoft is not stopping anyone from doing that, but without support for the software, it’s very much akin to having a car for which you can’t buy parts anymore.  At the end of the day, you might as well make it easier on you then, by saying goodbye to Windows XP.

It is worth noting, though, that Microsoft has not scrimped on its efforts to convince people to stop using XP. In fact, they released an infographic wishing XP a happy retirement, urging people to upgrade to Windows 8. Considering the fact that 37.7 percent of PCs in the world are still running on Windows XP, Microsoft’s efforts are justified.

Source: http://techbeat.com/2013/08/time-to-say-goodbye-to-windows-xp/

Twitter University

School is back, no kids really it is! Well for social media development students it is anyway.  Everybody’s favourite micro-blogging website recently announced the opening of Twitter University.  The program is designed for engineers to get world-class technical training and gain the abilities to teach the skills which they have already mastered.

Chris Fry, senior vice president of engineering, said in a recent blog post: ”We want Twitter to be the best place in the world for engineers to work” The social networking company already offers its employees an array of training opportunities, ranging from orientation classes to iOS Bootcamp courses.  These are taught by team members in an effort to develop a new skills set. “I’ve been inspired by those efforts,” Fry said. “Being able to continually learn on the job and develop a sense of expertise or mastery is a fundamental factor in success in the technology industry and long term happiness at a company.”  Twitter University will be vital for the company’s engineering department, he said.

To help run this program, Twitter has purchased an open-source training company called Marakana.  The company’s founders Sasa and Marko Gargenta have been teaching classes at the social network headquarters for several months now and “have been continually impressed by the engineering leadership, the company’s commitment to learning and the cultural fit between our two companies” they said.  Over the past ten years, Marakana has developed courses on HTML 5, Java, Android, Scala, Python, Hadoop, jQuery and other languages, delivering classes to more than 100,000 professional software engineers.

Developers are able to keep up with classes by following @TwU; the account already gained more than 700 followers since it launch.  That’s great for software developers, but what about us mere mortals?  Well, Twitter will eventually be releasing some of the University content online for anyone who would like to learn!

Source: http://techbeat.com/2013/08/8143/

Google & Microsoft Conflict Over Windows Phone YouTube App

Windows phone users who want to watch funny cat videos on YouTube won’t be able to do it any time soon. At least not until Microsoft and Google find a way to solve their long-running dispute over a Windows phone YouTube app.

The bitter row between the two giants began earlier this year and escalated last week when Google blocked a new YouTube Windows phone app just two days after it was released. Google, which owns YouTube, said the app violates its terms of service.

Google said the decision was made because Microsoft has not made the changes required and did not build a YouTube app based on HTML5, as instructed. Microsoft responded that neither Android nor iPhone apps are built on HTML5, so Google’s accusation was clearly manufactured.

A lawyer for Microsoft, David Howard, said Google’s action clearly shows that the search engine giant was deliberately trying to hinder the Windows phone platform by denying it access to YouTube.

Howard insisted that Google’s requirements are impossible to meet and are inconsistent, since the company is not asking the same of its own Android platform or Apple’s mobile operating system. The reasons cited by Google seem manufactured, so that Microsoft cannot offer Windows phone users the same experience as other mobile platform users are getting, the lawyer said.

Google in turn defended its decision and said Microsoft failed to make the necessary browser upgrades for the YouTube Windows app. Instead, the company re-released the same Windows phone app that was already rejected by Google earlier this year, for violating its terms of service.

Back in May, Google asked Microsoft to take down its YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store because it did not allow the display of advertisements. The two companies found common ground on the matter and announced that they would work together on developing an app that would respect the video website’s terms. The Windows app Google blocked last week is presumably the result of the collaboration.

It’s unclear what will happen now, but what’s for certain is that Microsoft needs access to YouTube for its smartphones more than Google actually needs the relatively small number of Windows phone users. Windows phone is currently the third most popular mobile OS, after Android (79% of the market) and iOS (at 14.2%). The Windows phone holds 3.3% of the smartphone market.

What do you think may happen? Will Microsoft retaliate with a lawsuit, as some analysts suggest? Or will they just play nice and do whatever it takes to get their Windows phone YouTube app unblocked? 

Source: http://techbeat.com/2013/08/google-microsoft-row-over-windows-phone-youtube-app/

Ways to hack/protect the Facebook account

5 Ways to hack a Facebook account, something most of our readers always wanted to Learn, something new about Facebook Hacking.

Learn the best attacks for Facebook Hacking with their advantages and drawbacks.

Note:- This tutorial is for educational purpose only and may not be used for any blackhat purpose. The prime aim of this tutorial is to create awareness so that you guys can protect yourself from getting hacked.
Before learning the actual procedure you should know about different types of attacks, their drawbacks and prevention against these attacks .

1) Phishing :
The first and very basic way of hacking Facebook accounts is via Phishing. Phishing is actually creating fake web pages to steal user’s credentials like email,passwords,phone no,etc.

DRAWBACK :
Users nowadays are aware of these type of attacks and one can not be easily fooled using this attack. You need some social engineering to trick someone.
‘
Prevention :

Always check the page URL before logging in. This is the most trusted and effective way one can use to avoid himself from phishing.

Other way is to use some good Antivirus software which will warn you if you visit a harmful phishing page.
Even if somehow you have already entered your credentials in a phisher, Immediately Change your password.

2) Keylogging :
This is another good way of hacking Facebook accounts. In this type of attack a hacker simply sends an infected file having keylogger in it to the victim. If the victim executes that file on his pc, whatever he types will be mailed/uploaded to hacker’s server. The advantage of this attack is that the victim won’t know that hacker is getting every Bit of data he is typing. Another big advantage is that hacker will get passwords of all the accounts used on that PC.

DRAWBACK :
Keyloggers are often detected as threats by good antiviruses. Hacker must find a way to protect it from antivirus.

Prevention :

Execute the file only if you trust the sender.
Use online scanner such as novirusthanks.org
Use good antivirus and update it regularly .

3) Trojans/backdoors :
This is an advanced level topic. It consists of a server and a client. In this type of attack the attacker sends the infected server to the victim. After execution the infected server i.e. Trojan on the victim’s PC opens a backdoor and now the hacker can do whatever he wants with the victim’s PC .

DRAWBACK :
Trojans are often detected as threats by good antiviruses. Hacker must find a way to protect it from antivirus.

Prevention :

Execute the file only if you trust the sender.
Use online scanner such as novirusthanks.org
Use good antivirus and update it regularly .

4)Sniffing
It consists of stealing session in progress. In this type of attack an attacker makes connection with server and client and relays message between them, making them believe that they are talking to each other directly.

DRAWBACK :

If user is logged out then attacker is also logged out and the session is lost.
It is difficult to sniff on SSL protected networks.
Prevention :

Always use SSL secured connections.
Always keep a look at the url if the http:// is not changed to https:// it means that sniffing is active on your network.

5)Social Engineering :
This method includes guessing and fooling the clients to give their own passwords. In this type of attack, a hacker sends a fake mail which is very convincing and appealing and asks the user for his password.
Answering the security questions also lies under this category.

Drawback :
It is not easy to convince someone to make him give his password.
Guessing generally doesn’t always work ( Although if you are lucky enough it may work!).

Prevention :

Never give your password to anyone
Don’t believe in any sort of emails which asks for your password

6) Session Hijacking
In a session hijacking attack an attacker steals victims cookies, cookies stores all the necessary logging Information about one’s account, using this info an attacker can easily hack anybody’s account. If you get the cookies of the Victim you can Hack any account the Victim is Logged into i.e. you can hack Facebook, Google, Yahoo.

Drawbacks :

You will be logged out when user is logged out.
You will not get the password of the user’s account.
Will not work if the user is using HTTPS connections.

Prevention :

Always work on SSL secured connections.
Always keep a look at the url if the http:// is not changed to https:// it means that sniffing is active on your network.

Hope this post will help you to  Secure Your Facebook Account

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source: http://www.thehackersbay.net/