Facebook answers queries about Netflix
In what seems to have become a weekly occurrence, Facebook again came under fire for more privacy-related issues.
It was alleged that other large tech companies like Netflix and Spotify had access to users’ private messages, underscoring the fact that regular users really don’t know what the social network does with their information.
Facebook’s reply was that these services needed access to users’ private conversations to integrate messaging features.
Ime Archibong, Facebook VP of Product Partnerships, had the following to say:
“In order for you to write a message to a Facebook friend from within Spotify, for instance, we needed to give Spotify "write access." For you to be able to read messages back, we needed Spotify to have "read access." "Delete access" meant that if you deleted a message from within Spotify, it would also delete from Facebook. No third party was reading your private messages, or writing messages to your friends without your permission.”
It would be safe to say that trust in Facebook is likely at an all-time low. Remember to be mindful of your privacy settings!
Source: CNET
US indicts Chinese hackers
The latest battle in the US vs. China cybersecurity battle involves two alleged hackers.
They’re accused of, among other things, corporate espionage and attempting to steal government secrets.
Hundreds of gigabytes of data have allegedly been stolen.
There seems to be no end in sight for this cybersecurity war, and the smart money says there will be more indictments next year.
Source: Time
Twitter Memes are spreading Malware
Malicious hackers don’t seem to hold anything sacred. They’re now apparently using Twitter memes to spread malware.
The harmful code is hidden in the images themselves, and spread malware called TROJAN.MSIL.BERBOMTHUM.AA.
Source: Latest Hacking News
Want your data? You may get someone else’s.
Amazon has come under fire in Europe for what they have deemed a “human error”.
When an Alexa user requested his information, Amazon sent data over to comply with GDPR laws.
Unfortunately, they sent someone else’s data. Over 1,700 recordings of a complete stranger were made available to the man.
One has to hope that there were no weird messages included. It’s not exactly great to hear that a complete stranger can accidentally get access to all of the weird things you say to Alexa.
Source: CNET
Internet Explorer continues to find ways to mess up
Internet Explorer, the gift that no one wants to keep on giving, recently received a patch to block a bug that allows hackers to break into Windows systems.
We don’t know what’s more amazing, the fact that IE continues to find new bugs, or the fact that it will probably continue to be on peoples’ computers long after Microsoft’s Edge browser has embraced the netherworld.
Source: The Hacker News
