When I was a user of Newsvine, they linked to Facebook and were quite proud of it. That was on a Friday. The following Monday, CNN reported that a malicious worm was having its way on Facebook. I sent an e-mail to the Community Moderator informing him of the fact and then watched to see if anything would happen on their end about notifying the community of the danger posed. There was nothing said to the users about it.
About a month later the Community Moderator, when quiered by a member of Newsvine about the issue told him that his saying something about it was the first time he had heard about it. Maybe he was a sleep as usual. Who knows? I have that exchange of e-mails in my log files.
The linking to a social forum is quite dangerous as those sites are generally wide open for abuse and hackers. My question now is, "Is Newsvine" or any other service that provides news feeds to the general public going to notify all its users. I guess I'll wait and see.
Here's the link to the article about the hackers and Facebook that is now being contended with:
http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSTRE54D6BN20090514
Click Here to read Rueters Story
Hello world!
5 years ago
This continues to be an issue. I have never linked my Facebook up to anything but Newsvine would be one of the least desirable places I would do that. Both sites have security issues.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't going to comment on your blog anymore, but I just couldn't let this silliness slide without a response.
ReplyDeleteWhat this article talks about was not a worm. It was a phishing attack (which has nothing to do with any sort of worm, or anything that could infect anyone on Newsvine with or without connecting their accounts to Facebook).
It was an attempt to steal people's Facebook passwords by redirecting them to a page that LOOKED like Facebook. There is no possible way that it could have had any effect on anyone that didn't put their Facebook password into those fake pages, and even if they did, if their Newsvine password is different than their Facebook password, it would still not have affected their Newsvine account. It has NOTHING to do with Newsvine...at all...whatsoever...none.
It really just sounds like you don't know what you're trying to blame Newsvine for at this point...
Brad, best to say that it would be good if Newsvine found a better way of making it's money that introduce phishing, key logging, or trackers. If they had a decent product they would not have to be hacking into people's personal email, tracing their searches, and risking security on other access accounts. Seems to me they have an issue with their programmers, or should I call them hackers? If they break security to any system a user has anywhere they are breaking the law.
ReplyDeleteNo one has shown any reason to think that Newsvine is doing any of those things, so unless you're willing to back that statement up with AT LEAST the name of the law firm you are using to put together a case against them (since that is not something the law firm would suggest you keep private...as I'm sure they would suggest with regards to the actual information you may or may not have), then there's no way for me to comment on them, since your SAYING they are doing it, with no evidence, and no attempt to prove it, isn't convincing in the least. Especially with such a completely lack of understanding what you claim they are doing. If you don't understand the difference between a phishing scam happening on Facebook and a worm infecting Newsvine, I have my doubts that you understand enough about computer security to know much about the claims you're making about Newsvine's actions.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to back your statement up and/or name the law firm so I can confirm them through proper legal channels, than fine. Otherwise this is a one sided discussion, which won't get anyone anywhere.
Who are you? Do you work for Newsvine? Do you represent the Newsvine IT Group? My people will contact NV through the proper channels...
ReplyDeleteMeantime you may want to read:
http://williamholmes.newsvine.com/_news/2006/08/16/326746-newsvine-and-3rd-party-tracking-cookies
As much as I love Newsvine, I wonder why they allow spyware programs to run on their site.
According to NoScript, a great extension for Firefox. as you are using Newsvine, it's installing doubleclick.net spyware.
There's also something called 2mdm.net, which I am unfamiliar with.
Does anyone else have a problem with this? What is the point of allowing these things here?
Both companies install a 3rd party tracking cookie on your machine without your permission. Are they harmful? They can definetly slow things down. AND, they ARE tracking your internet activity "for business" purposes.
http://zoilus.newsvine.com/_news/2008/12/15/2215681-is-newsvine-infecting-you-computer-with-malware
For the last few days my tracker is gone spastic and I keep getting the message displayed in the clipping below? I am also being redirected to some online RPG site. Who else is have this happen and what can be done about it?
Mark Budos is a co-founder and CTO of Newsvine. He lies awake at night worrying about the stability of your site.
mark
The content you consume on the Internet is directly related to the resources (capital) the sites have available to produce content. There are three common ways that a site can generate revenue:
1) ECommerce (Newsvine doesn't currently sell anything)
2) Subscription content (There are only a handful of successful sites that operate in this manner)
3) Advertising
The value that a site / agency / ad network can provide to the advertiser can be done in a number of ways.
1) CPC ads. This is when the advertiser tells a network that they don't care where their ads run, but they'll only pay for the click. Since advertising is a two fold proposition (branding and action), the publisher gets low effective CPMs by not being compensated for the branding component of this advertising. These can either be text ads or media ads. These ads can perform very effectively on certain topics (e.g. digital cameras, computing), but poorly on general news topics that are most popular on Newsvine (politics, sports, odd news).
2) Invasive advertising. Examples of these are popunders, inline video, forms that steal your cursor. Advertisers generally don't need a significant amount of tracking because the goal is to simply generate as many clicks as possible. CPMs are generally high for these, but Newsvine has shied away from supporting ads that taint the user experience.
3) Lift measuring ads - At the end of the day, an advertiser is attempting to provide lift for their business. Advertisers will pay a premium to measure the effectiveness of a campaign across multiple properties, which requires two very important metrics. "Reach", how many users did I touch, and "frequency", how many times were they exposed to it. The ability to control the delivery of ads as it relates to these two factors is very valuable to advertisers.
The third option provides the most value to both the advertiser and the publisher, while still maintaining a quality user experience.
Unfortunately, these collection techniques requires third party advertising software that drops cookies on your desktops. If an advertiser's ability to set cookies is limited via security settings, they lose valuable information. The result is additional expenses for technology to sidestep the blocking software, or the advertisers simply not willing to pay as much.
The less money advertisers spend, the smaller amount of investment content sites can put into additional features and quality.
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• 12 votes
#13 - Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:15 PM EDT
I don't work for Newsvine no. I simply want to learn more about your claims, and can't do so without you giving me some information that would help that endeavor. If you don't want to, fine. But you can't refuse to prove your point, and still expect me to accept that point as proven. Either way is fine by me, but you can't have both.
ReplyDeleteThe cookies you mention are for ad tracking, and they aren't installed "without your permision", all browsers can turn off third party cookies. (the "third party" bit meaning LITERALLY that they aren't from Newsvine...). If you (or anyone) doesn't like that they use ads that have tracking cookies in them, they can turn those types of cookies off in their browser, use something like noscript(which I'd recommend anyway), or not visit the site, but they are nothing to do with any of the claims of wrongdoing you have mentioned, so I'm not sure why you think it's relevant.
If you don't work for newsvine then it is not your concern. I don't really care what you accept. It's YOUR Computer. Cookies can be used for more than tracking, you should read up on them, I don't allow 3rd Party Cookies, whats more I have software that tells me what is loading. No need to worry about me visiting the site anymore is there... What's the matter Brad is it a little slow on Newsvine these days?
ReplyDeleteTrue, it's not my concern, and it seems so extremely unlikely at this point that there is a case being put together (let alone a case with actual evidence) that it really doesn't matter. My point was simply that if you want to be taken seriously in a discussion, you can't use information you aren't willing to even TRY to share as the basis for saying someone else is wrong, because there's no way to know either way. Cookies CAN do more than track your web movements...they can't do much more...and none of the cookies related to visiting Newsvine do anything else. Given your aparent lack of understanding of the issue, I would guess that I know far more on the topic of cookies and all things computer security than you do...but then, since you won't share what you claim to know Newsvine is doing, there's no way to say for sure.
ReplyDeleteEither way, it doesn't matter. I simply thought I'd stop in see what this "worm" business was all about, and it turns out that it's nothing, as I expected...not even a worm, let alone a worm affecting Newsvine users. It's not likely I'll be back to see any further comments, but you have my email address if you feel the need to use it(which is probably doubtful, but who knows).
Reposted for The Frog Prince...
ReplyDeleteSaturday, May 16, 2009
The worm Brad was detected on Facebook in late February. Go back and Google the CNN news report about it. As I've stated before, NV linked to it on a Friday and published an article trumpeting that achievement and the worm hit the news on the next Monday. all the members of our group got that link as it was important. I e-mailed Tyler with the link to alert him to the potential problem. Maybe it's one of the ones he didn't read. The community should have been immediately notified and it wasn't. Why notify? Simple. Worms migrate, mutate and keep on spreading by any means they can. Any time there is such a threat, does management have a duty to inform the users? You answer that for yourself.
Your comment displays just how much you don't know about technology. Phishing scams are dome in various ways, just as worms migrate in various ways. Another keylogger was captured right off of Newsvine yesterday. I won't tell you exactly where but it is quarantined right as we speak. It was verified by doing the same thing twice just to ensure the same results. Bingo.
Phishing scams are predominantly accomplished through keyloggers Brad. They are dangerous and highly illegal to place on any one else's computer but your own.
I could share with you quite a bit of information about Newsvine and the subject of computer technology and its use or misuse, but I'll keep it where it belongs.
We don't mind your comments or observations Brad so don't feel you need to shy away. We've always welcomed constructive dialogue about any subject.
You keep wanting names of law firms Brad. that's attorney client privilege son. In due time. Shit I have to keep telling Calvin and Tyler to be patient. We have been.
Brad,
ReplyDeleteI specifically asked everyone on Tyler's Frog Legs Badge article if anyone commenting other than Tyler was on the Newsvine staff. You were there as well.
I was informed no one other than the green background members were staff.
Respectfully, just exactly what is your interest here?
That Koobface, was that around October? Because that was when I got a virus from NV and had to erase everything from my computer.
ReplyDeleteBrad. I know it was from Newsvine, because that was the only vine I was on. Are you saying the only way you can find out anything about this virus is if you have the name of their Lawfirm? That's ludicrous. If you really want to know, ask your buddies Tyler & Calvin. But I know first-hand that they don't answer questions so don't expect much.