Google testing link between Gmail and search
Google has begun testing a search feature that mines relevant emails from users' Gmail accounts and displays links to them in the results page.
To use the feature, users would need to be logged in to their Google account and the Gmail results would be visible only to them.
The feature is an attempt by Google to make its search results "truly universal," because answers to certain queries may be contained in users' Gmail messages, the company said on Wednesday.
"So if you're planning a biking trip to Tahoe, you might see relevant emails from friends about the best bike trails, or great places to eat on the right hand side of the results page. If it looks relevant you can then expand the box to read the emails," Amit Singhal, senior vice president of search at Google, wrote in a blog post.
Google already offers signed-in users the option to mesh personal results with links to public Web pages, an initiative it calls Search Plus Your World. Read more...
Fake users and an angry developer — Facebook’s bad week
As their company's stock continued to slump, Facebook executives had to face not one but two other pieces of tough news this week.
Just as an angry third-party developer blasted Facebook's allegedly high-handed negotiation tactics in an open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company also reported that about 83 million of its user accounts are duplicates or have fake names.
"Any one thing isn't so bad but the cumulative effect is terrible," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research. "Why would any investor put more money into them? This was certainly a strange situation and it makes you wonder how many skeletons might be out there."
The trouble started Wednesday when startup entrepreneur Dalton Caldwell, co-founder of such sites as iMeem and PicPlz, posted on his blog an open letter to Zuckerberg in which he accused Facebook of bullying practices. Read more...
LinkedIn confirms that user passwords were compromised
LinkedIn has confirmed that some of the more than six million password hashes which were stolen and published online correspond to accounts belonging to its members. The professional social networking web site has now disabled the passwords for affected accounts.
Affected users should receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions explaining how to reset their passwords. LinkedIn Director Vicente Silveira says that these initial password reset emails will not contain any links. This is most likely being done to protect users against possible phishing attacks in which attackers could, for example, send emails with instructions to reset passwords and links to web sites constructed to impersonate LinkedIn, in order to trick people into providing private information. Read more...
As Facebook grows, millions say, ‘no, thanks’
Don't try to friend MaLi Arwood on Facebook. You won't find her there.
You won't find Thomas Chin, either. Or Kariann Goldschmitt. Or Jake Edelstein.
More than 900 million people worldwide check their Facebook accounts at least once a month, but millions more are Facebook holdouts.
They say they don't want Facebook. They insist they don't need Facebook. They say they're living life just fine without the long-forgotten acquaintances that the world's largest social network sometimes resurrects. Read more...
60 percent of US parents spy on teens’ Facebook accounts: survey
To spy or not to spy on your teen on Facebook, that's the question for parents, and most seem to be okay with it. According to a new survey, 60 percent of U.S. parents of teenagers seem okay looking in their kids' social accounts without their knowledge. And moms are most likely to be the ones doing the spying.
The information comes from security software company AVG Technologies, which surveyed 4,400 parents with children ages 14 to 17 in 11 countries. American parents aren't alone in their snooping, but they seem to be more aggressive about Facebook spying. Globally, only 44 percent of all parents said they spy on their teens' Facebook accounts. Read more...
Facebook tells employers not to ask job seekers for log-in info
Facebook on Friday warned employers about trying to gain inappropriate access to Facebook accounts to check out private information about potential employees, citing possible legal liability.
In recent months, Facebook has seen a "distressing increase" of reports about employers trying to access user accounts in the U.S., Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer, said in a post. "The most alarming of these practices is the reported incidences of employers asking prospective or actual employees to reveal their passwords." Read more...
A little bird told me your teen is on Twitter
While many parents are trying to keep up with Facebook’s ever-changing privacy policies, their kids are quietly taking their private conversations to Twitter. They are using multiple and anonymous accounts to communicate unobserved.
Teenagers are increasingly using Twitter because, according to my own teenage son, “Adults aren’t on it.” A survey conducted in July 2011 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which explores the impact of the internet on families and civic life, found that the number of 12- to 17-year olds on Twitter doubled from 2008 to 2010. Read more...
Her Majesty’s £444m court IT system can’t even add up fines
The Libra magistrates' courts case management system has contributed to the inability of HM Courts Service to produce basic financial information to support its accounts, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO).
The courts service uses Libra, plus information produced by local police forces' IT systems, to provide the auditor with accounts of the revenues it collects from fines, confiscation orders and penalties. On receipt of cash, for example, the courts service uses Libra to record the payment against the person on whom the fine was imposed.
A similar system operates at the courts service's fixed penalty offices, using information from police forces, based principally on the Vehicle Procedures and Fixed Penalty Office system. Read more...
Sony detects attacks on its networks, over 90,000 customer accounts locked
Today, Sony's PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment service are up and running in fine style, but if you rewind just a few months, you'll remember that it hasn't always been this way. Earlier this year, Sony suffered one of the worst cyber attacks on a company in recent memory. Millions of accounts were compromised, and Sony spent months cleaning up the mess. And according to a new press release by the company, someone is at it again.
Sony's Chief Information Security Officer (that's a title we wouldn't have wanted to have back in May), Philip Reitinger, revealed that someone with a large number of email and password combinations attempted to access the accounts of hundreds of thousands of PSN users. The attack resulted in roughly 93,000 accounts being fraudulently accessed, all of which have now been locked for security. Read more...
Unauthorized access hits Sony PlayStation accounts
The Tokyo-based company temporarily locked about 93,000 accounts whose IDs and passwords were successfully ascertained by the blitz. Sony sent email notifications and password reset procedures to affected customers on the PlayStation Network, Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment services.
Credit card numbers linked to the compromised accounts are not at risk, Sony said. It has "taken steps to mitigate the activity" and is investigating any wrongful use of the accounts themselves. Read more...
Suspected Chinese spear-phishing attacks continue to hit Gmail users
Months after Google said that Chinese hackers were targeting the Gmail accounts of senior U.S. government officials, attempts to hijack Gmail inboxes continue, a researcher said Thursday.
"Once compromises happen and are covered in the news, they do not disappear and attackers don't give up or stop. They continue their business as usual," said Mila Parkour, an independent security researcher based in Washington, D.C., on her Contagio Malware Dump website.
In early June, Google announced it had disrupted a targeted phishing campaign designed to compromise Gmail accounts belonging to senior U.S. and South Korean government officials, military personnel, Chinese activists and journalists. Google said it had traced the attacks to Jinan, China, a city in eastern China that has been linked to other hacking campaigns, including one in late 2009 against Google's own network. Read more...