INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

[Herald Sun, September 16, 2009]

The number of mobile phone users accessing the popular social networking websites Twitter and Facebook has exploded. Traffic on Twitter, which allows users to post short messages or "tweets" about their every move, has soared 1382 per cent worldwide in the past year. The number of Facebook users connecting with friends and posting updates about their status on mobiles has ballooned to more than 65 million people a month -- and it's growing.

Such is the global love affair with social networking via the mobile internet, telecommunications experts and mobile phone companies believe the phenomena is changing the way we communicate on the run. Facebook's director of mobile, Henri Moissinac, said that since the website's launch in 2004, Facebook membership had soared to more than 250 million.

"Fifty per cent of them connect every day. That's more than five billion minutes spent on Facebook every day," Mr Moissinac said at a recent mobile phone conference in Stuttgart. "To put things in perspective, for most of these users, they spend more time on Facebook than watching TV."

Between 2007-08, the number of people accessing the net on a mobile device surged 315 per cent. One of the biggest drivers has been Facebook. "Since 2008 our traffic has gone through the roof," Mr Moissinac said. "Growth is not slowing down. Facebook is now becoming one of the largest mobile services in the world."

Driving this huge growth is people's desire to connect and share the details of their lives more often. "We used to see that happen once a day on the computer, but now we see them doing it 10 or 15 times or more (via mobile)," said Mr Moissinac.

Nokia's executive vice-president of markets, Anssi Vanjoki, said the trend has seen a burgeoning appetite for maps, restaurant recommendations and photo sharing on mobile phones. These factors were driving the business now, he said.

Veteran telecommunications analyst and researcher Paul Budde said online social networking was revolutionising mobile phone use. He said 18 months ago, an estimated 3-5 per cent of Australians used their mobile phone to perform tasks beyond voice calls and SMS messaging.

That figure is now nearly 40 per cent, with the trend most prevalent among younger Australians. "They are born into it. They don't know any other way than social networking," said Mr Budde. "Increasingly, this will become an integral part of how we communicate."

[Agence France-Presse, September 18, 2009]

The fear of dying suddenly, without the chance to mend wrongs or say goodbye, has prompted an Australian entrepreneur to start a website where people can contact loved ones from beyond the grave. Security systems retailer Peter Ingram watched as his aunt lost her ability to speak, write, or even smile within just two weeks of being diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was fully conscious and able to understand what was happening around her, but remained silent until her death, taking her secrets, thanks and regrets to the grave. "I'd known her for 20 years and to me that was devastating," Mr Ingram said.

He recently launched Australia's first virtual time-capsule site, FromBeyond2u.com, where the living can leave videos, photographs and documents to be sent out to loved ones after death. The site charges $US 1 for users to store their "cherished digital memories" and programme farewell messages for the time of their death and on fixed dates such as birthdays or anniversaries into the future. "It's not a new concept, leaving things, letters for people, videos, messages, but the internet has changed what we can do with it," Mr Ingram said. "You can keep in touch today, tomorrow and beyond."

Subscribers can write their own eulogy and create a multimedia tribute for use at their funeral, and bequeath their photo and video files. Whilst living, they can use the site as a place to store and share their files with friends and family all over the world. A certificate with an activation code in the event of death is given to every user to be left with their will or next of kin.

Taboo topics

The website could, of course, have less savory applications, Mr Ingram said. "I had a radio station ask me the other day 'What if people leave nasty messages? Maybe I want to tell my mother-in-law for the next 10 years that I didn't like her,'" he said.

"I guess she can change her email address if you keep on badgering her with emails, but that's not what it's about." People could also use the future messages service to posthumously speak to a mistress or spill their darkest secrets, knowing they wouldn't have to deal with the consequences, he added. "That's none of my business, you can do whatever you want," he laughed.

Sharing with family

Mr Ingram said he had already accumulated plenty of embarrassing footage of his "angelic" son on the site in preparation for his 21st birthday celebrations. "This is you chucking a tantrum, this is you when you're nine years old telling me you'll always love me, even when you're a teenager," he joked. "Hopefully at his 21st I will have 12 or 13 years of backed-up photos and memories and hopefully I'll be there. But if I do kick the bucket they'll all be there for him," he said.

Users can also leave more obscure instructions they might overlook in a legal will, such as where they kept their motorcycle keys or hid precious things, he said. Far from being morbid or narcissistic, Mr Ingram believes the site encourages sharing with family and community. "I think the number one (aim is) definitely sharing the love with loved ones and being there for them, and not to be forgotten, that's a fear of mine," he said

[SMH, August 15, 2007]

Strict privacy settings on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook mean little when users are all too willing to accept strangers as friends, security firm Sophos says. An online experiment conducted by the firm found over 40 per cent of Facebook users would accept a "friend request" from a complete stranger and, of those people, more than three quarters revealed their date of birth, address and information about their education or employer. Some exposed complete CVs and even their mother's maiden name, a detail often used by banks and various online services to help users retrieve forgotten passwords.

Sophos's head of technology, Paul Ducklin, said such details could be used maliciously by thieves to impersonate the user, after which they could obtain passwords for online user accounts and access employers' private computer networks. The details could also be used to develop highly targeted "phishing" emails, which hackers use to convince people to divulge sensitive information like credit card details.

Ducklin said while both Facebook and MySpace allowed users to restrict profiles so their information could only be viewed by approved "friends," the general definition of a friend on the sites was too loose and people were too quick to approve friend requests from strangers. "Just because it looks like someone you might like or know or be interested in doesn't mean that it is, and you actually need to take some reasonable steps to find out whether someone who wants to be your friend is actually someone you want to be friends with," Ducklin said. “People are now learning to be suspicious of email and spam messages but they need to keep those same lessons in mind with social networking. Of course, if you asked them in the street, or via a spam email, to cough up the same data, they'd be rightly sceptical of sharing it."

For its experiment Sophos created a fabricated Facebook profile under the name "Freddi Staur" (an anagram of "ID Fraudster"), a green plastic frog who divulged minimal personal information. Sophos then sent out 200 friend requests to random Facebook users and, of those people, 87 accepted. Of the people who accepted, 72 per cent gave their email, 84 per cent gave their date of birth, 78 per cent gave an address or current location, 23 per cent gave their phone number and 87 per cent gave details about their education or employer. Many also gave photos of family and friends, hobbies, the name of a spouse or partner, complete CVs and their mother's maiden name.

"It's allowing unscrupulous people to accumulate information -- according to our research apparently quite easily and very quickly -- that is just ideal for identity thieves," Ducklin said. Facebook was only opened to public access last September, but in that time it has grown its Australian user base from 24,000 to more than 200,000. The site has 31 million users worldwide, with membership now growing faster than its main rival, MySpace, which has 60 million users. Facebook said in a statement it had long made available "technology that limits the availability of personal information" but welcomed every opportunity to educate users on how to protect their online data.

[SMH, August 4, 2007]

Cathy Wilson (not her real name) is a sensible 25-year-old working two jobs to save for a deposit on a flat. On the MySpace website, however, you can discover another side to the eastern suburbs marketing manager and child-care worker. Alongside titillating photographs, Wilson says she is bisexual and reveals her general interests as "sex, sex on contiki, sex at work, sex at my mums house …" It then lists her personal details, including her home address and phone numbers.

The catch? Wilson's MySpace profile isn't Wilson's. It's a bogus profile, a case of identity theft that occurred last Saturday. Wilson became aware of it on Sunday, when eager young men started phoning, emailing, texting and turning up at her front door. She promptly notified MySpace, telling them to remove the profile. She also told police, who are investigating. "The internet's not safe," says Wilson, distraught that the profile had not been removed by yesterday.

Internet identity theft is an alarming new brand of stalking, harassment and defamation. It's what happens when MySpace becomes MyStalkerSpace. How common is it? Police are unable to give statistics about cases such as Wilson's. "It would be up to the individual police station [to keep track of reported incidents]," says a police spokesman. "That makes it difficult for us to collate these sorts of details."

MySpace, "a place for friends," has 3.8 million profiles in Australia; it's impossible to know how many are bogus. A MySpace spokesman, Darain Faraz, says even the site itself has no figure on how often identity theft occurs. "A profile will be taken down immediately, where people are pretending to be someone else," says Faraz. "And/or if it's defamatory or suggests violence. That's unacceptable."

It isn't just MySpace. There's also Facebook, which bills itself as a "social utility that connects you with the people around you". These sites allow people or groups to create identities and make cyberspace connections. "Almost everyone I know around my age has a MySpace or a Facebook account," says Wilson. "Lots of the young kids I babysit have MySpace profiles too. Surely that's not safe with all the pedophiles and crazies out there."

Given the popularity of such sites, horror stories are inevitable. Last year, Associated Press reported police were investigating whether up to seven girls aged 12 to 16 had been sexually assaulted by men they met on MySpace. In May, Melbourne 21-year old Tanya Maree Quattrocchi was ordered to serve 150 hours of community service after stalking and blackmailing American Idol star Diana DeGarmo. Quattrocchi bombarded DeGarmo with calls and text messages before hacking into her MySpace page and pretended to be her in emails she sent to the singer's family and friends.

An internet success story owned by News Corp, MySpace says it does not tolerate abuses such as identity theft. Its FAQ (frequently asked questions) page includes the question, "How do I report Identity theft, Underage User, Cyberbullying, Copyright Violation, to MySpace?" There follows the question, "Someone is pretending to be me -- what do I do?" The site responds, "In order to verify your identity, please send us a 'salute.' This means we will need an image of yourself holding a handwritten sign with the word 'MySpace.com' and your Friend ID … If the profile is an extremely obvious attempt to be cruel/false, you may not need to send a salute." A link follows for sending a message.

Wilson says she sent three messages on Sunday, but did not send a salute because the profile was obviously false. "I would never create a page like that," she says. "It's disgusting." Convinced the page was created by a former boyfriend, she is seeking an apprehended violence order. She says the suggestive, tongue-in-cheek photos were copied from an internet gallery reserved for close friends, which required a password to enter. The photos are suggestive, but not explicit. Music videos often show more flesh. It is the accompanying text that troubles her most.

"Hi boys," the profile says. "I'm out to have fun and meet as many of you as I can. PLEASE no serious relationships they only bore me." Wilson says police have been helpful, if occasionally perplexed. There is no specific law in NSW that targets identity theft, on the internet or elsewhere. Is it fraud? Harassment? It may be a matter for a civil action, such as defamation. All Wilson knows is that on Sunday she began receiving scores of unwanted phone calls, emails and text messages. "This can happen really easily," says Wilson, who has changed her mobile phone number and is in contact with the police. "Once you put any information on the internet, it's not safe. When I first saw the website on Sunday morning, I was distressed. I couldn't believe this could happen."

INFAMOUS AUSTRALIAN INTERNET PIRATE GETS 4 YEARS IN JAIL

DrinkOrDie specialised in cracking software codes and distributing the cracked versions over the Internet. Their victims included not only well-known companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, Symantec and Novell, but also smaller companies whose livelihood depended on the sales revenue generated by one or two products. Once cracked, these software versions could be copied, used and distributed without limitation.

"SPAM KING" CHARGED WITH FRAUD, IDENTITY THEFT AND MONEY LAUNDERING

Junk e-mail is most often distributed through the use of mass e-mailing programs and networks of computers infected by viruses, according to computer security experts.

[SC Magazine, June 4 2007]

More than 9,500 new infected web pages were detected every day last month, latest figures show. The report, compiled by Sophos, shows that the number of new malicious web pages discovered last month, has soared by more than 1,000 every day when compared to April. The research reveals that in total, 304,000 web pages hosting malicious code were identified in May. According to the research, the most prominent web-based malware last month was Iframe, accounting for almost two-thirds of all the web-based threats.

Iframe works by injecting malicious code on to legitimate websites, the anti-virus company said. “Attacks spreading on the web are becoming more frequent and more problematic for businesses every month,” warned Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. “The real nasty attacks are most often found lurking on legitimate web pages," she added. "This is a wake up call for organisations with a website, being out of date with patches and running inadequate security has very real risks."

The research also found that China continues to host the most infected web pages, with more than half (53 per cent) of malicious web pages found in the Asian country. China’s dominance can be attributed to increased reports of Iframe, which has been widely detected on unprotected web pages in the country, according to the research.

[Washington Post, May 16, 2007]

Iinternet provider AOL (America Online) announced yesterday it has bought Third Screen Media, a private company in Boston that specializes in placing ads on mobile phones, two weeks after Microsoft announced a purchase of a similar advertising firm.

Although mobile advertising remains in its infancy, the acquisitions by these two major technology companies underscore the mounting attraction this market holds for advertisers, wireless carriers and computer companies. So far, most of the marketing is in the form of banner ads displayed on Web sites designed for mobile browsing. But in the future, analysts say, advertisers could send text or graphical ads or even video commercials to cellphone users tailored to their interests and demographics.

During the next four years, the research firm eMarketer expects annual U.S. spending on mobile advertising to increase to $4.76 billion from $903 million. Worldwide spending is expected to reach $13.9 billion at the end of the same period.

John du Pre Gauntt, a senior wireless analyst at eMarketer, said the deal comes as more powerful cellphones are flooding the consumer market, creating opportunities for AOL and other Internet companies to introduce advertising on the devices.

"The fact they acquired Third Screen Media outright indicates how much urgency there is right now for big portals and big ad networks to have a fairly sophisticated, fully baked mobile component," he said. He predicted more deals involving mobile-ad firms in the coming months.

AOL's purchase of Third Screen Media aims to extend the services already offered by AOL's online ad network, Advertising.com, into this emerging market. It is the latest in a recent series of acquisitions by AOL as it tries to revive its flagging fortunes, an effort that has included shuffling its corporate leadership and opening its Internet portal to non-subscribers. "The acquisition of Third Screen Media gives us a very strong position in the fast-growing mobile space," Randy Falco, chairman and chief executive of AOL, said in a statement. Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the deal.

Joe Doran, Microsoft's general manager for digital advertising, said the United States is more than a year behind Western Europe in exploiting the mobile market. So Microsoft acquired ScreenTonic, a Paris company Doran says already has the technical expertise and specialized sales force. "ScreenTonic is making things happen in Europe that you just don't see in the U.S.," he said. That deal was announced early this month and is pending. No financial details have been provided.

Besides AOL and Microsoft, other major U.S. companies testing the mobile ad market include Verizon Wireless and Sprint, industry analysts say. Yahoo's newly revamped advertising program, called Panama, incorporates a mobile element. Google offers limited text ads on mobile phones in the United States and a dozen other countries. "Mobile advertising is where advertising on the Web was 10 or 15 years ago," said Roger Entner, senior vice president of the communication sector at IAG Research in New York. "In the early '90s, it wasn't reaching a lot of people."

Americans own more than 200 million cellphones, and many carry them constantly, making these devices a fertile market for advertisers if they can get over a series of technical and psychological hurdles.

Analysts said many consumers are likely to resent receiving ads on their phones unless they are relevant to their needs. Although advertisers could potentially tailor their offerings based on the personal information wireless phone companies keep about their subscribers, carriers and ad agencies have yet to resolve privacy concerns, said Linda Barrabee, a wireless analyst with the Yankee Group.

Another challenge is that cellphones have smaller screens than computers, requiring different ad designs. "We haven't seen a lot of things come together yet," Barrabee said. "It's the promise of these things that's really appealing."