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"According to a report by Sophos, malware and spam are on the rise on social networks such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn. In the last year, 57% of users report they have been spammed via social networking sites, an increase of 70.6% compared to last year. Furthermore, 36% of users claim they've been sent malware via social networking sites, which is a rise of 69.8% from last year. On the other hand, CEOs of companies are concerned that their employees' usage of social networks is posing a security risk for their company. Sophos has surveyed more than 500 organizations, discovering that 72% of them think social networks are a danger for their companys, with 60% of them tagging Facebook as the biggest security risk, followed by MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, says that Facebook is the biggest threat because it's the biggest social network out there, but he also places some of the blame on Facebook's own privacy rules. "When Facebook rolled-out its new recommended privacy settings late last year, it was a backwards step, encouraging many users to share their information with everybody on the internet," he says. Interestingly enough (and contrasted to some of the reports we've seen lately), Cluley thinks that simply barring access to Facebook is not the solution. "Social networks can be an essential part of the business mix today," he says, "and the answer is not to bar staff from participating in them but to apply some 'social security' instead.""

"Dubbed SilentFade (short for "Silently running Facebook Ads with Exploits"), the malware compromised Facebook accounts and used them to promote malicious ads, steal browser cookies and more. The social-media giant said that the Chinese malware campaign started in 2016, but it was first discovered in December 2018, due to a suspicious traffic spike across a number of Facebook endpoints. After an extensive investigation, Facebook shut down the campaign and pursued legal action against the cybercriminals behind the attack in December 2019. "

Facebook has rushed to fix a security flaw that allowed users to eavesdrop on the live chats of their friends and see their pending friend requests

"Facebook had not spotted Adebowale's message containing "graphic" threats, so the security services were not told. The report by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) said if the message had been passed to MI5 it could have prevented the murder of the soldier."

"Facebook said on Thursday it had taken down about 200 accounts run by a group of hackers in Iran as part of a cyber-spying operation that targeted mostly US military personnel and people working at defense and aerospace companies. The social media company said the group, dubbed "Tortoiseshell" by security experts, used fake online personas to connect with targets, build trust - sometimes over the course of several months - and drive them to other sites, where they were tricked into clicking malicious links that would infect their devices with spying malware."

"Three software flaws in Facebook's systems allowed hackers to break into user accounts, including those of the top executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, according to two people familiar with the investigation but not allowed to discuss it publicly. Once in, the attackers could have gained access to apps like Spotify, Instagram and hundreds of others that give users a way to log into their systems through Facebook."

""Even if the data is old, it's never really old because it will always be useful for data brokers," he said. "It helps them correlate related information that is new and dump them into these profiles, which they sell online for as little as 99 cents.""

Developer says new API lets you query social network's databases - and there doesn't seem to be a way to turn it off

"Launched in response to terror attacks in New Zealand in May, where a lone gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch while livestreaming the massacre on Facebook, it calls for the "effective enforcement" of laws prohibiting the dissemination of terrorist content. It also states that all action on the issue must be consistent with the principles of a free, open and secure Internet, without compromising freedom of expression."

"Facebook and Twitter reported to have been blocked in run-up to protests, with people turning to VPNs to broadcast content"

"The new tools appear to allow Twitter users to share images with text overlays, stickers, and other modifications. Twitter's existing tools merely allow people to crop images or run them through filters that greatly change their appearance, whether it's by upping the contrast or making them look like old Polaroid shots."

The digital Economy Bill comes under major scrutiny as firms such as Google and Facebook are against it, meaning that ministers have to debate against large technology giants.