Last night, Facebook declared everyone dead, including the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a massive memorial ‘remembering’ profile glitch.
Well, that’s awkward.
Despite being very much alive, Facebook users, when logged on to their accounts on Friday afternoon, found their accounts turned to a “memorialized account,” strongly suggesting that they are dead to everyone who visits their
Sticky tape – is it really secure by design? Mark Zuckerberg the founder of the high tech company Facebook uses everyday sticky tape to help protect his laptop and identity.
Facebook founder and advocate of social media was recently pictured celebrating reaching the 500 million active users per month milestone for Instagram, a Facebook company. The achievements of Mr. Zuckerberg are indeed remarkable; the way in which the world communicates today would be very different without Facebook.
In the celebratory photo, Mr. Zuckerberg is seated at his desk holding a cutout of Instagram’s feed in Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters. Eagle-eyed Twitter user Chris Olson spotted that Mr. Zuckerberg, like many of us, had put tape over the webcam and microphone of his laptop.
We’ve all heard the stories of web cams being turned on in homes by malicious hackers, TVs that listen to us, and toys that record our voices, so it wouldn’t be surprising if many of us already do the same. Protecting devices with physical security helps ensure that if a hacker accesses your device, they do not see or hear much.
You might, however, expect the billionaire founder of Facebook to have a more sophisticated solution though, especially when there has been so much written about Facebook apps asking for permissions that seem somewhat sensitive or intrusive for some users. For example, Facebook asking for permission to access the user’s microphone and camera has generated speculation about whether such access could be used in ways that are not transparent to the user.
There have been several articles written with explanations on why the permissions are needed and assurances by Facebook that it will not abuse them. So, if all of this is true, why is the CEO and founder of Facebook putting tape over his webcam? Should we also be putting tape over our webcams?
We know that the CEO and Founder of Facebook does, and in a recent interview, James Comey, Director of the FBI also admitted to using this technique. Either they are making a statement or this method actually works. My personal opinion is – it’s the latter.
It might of course be because both of these personalities have such a high public profile that they are more likely to be targets for hackers. Considering malware like the remote access trojan (RAT) that can access a camera, maybe a piece of tape is a practical if not wholly elegant solution. Naturally, having up to date antivirus software and a fully updated/patched machine will make it less likely that such malware will ever reach your machine.
There’s also human error, although I am not sure this has been given an official ‘name’. Have you ever accidently started a video call on your laptop or phone? Most of us know that it is all too easy to click the wrong button to make the call and the next thing you know you are broadcasting video … and let’s hope it’s nothing confidential or embarrassing.
Given the risk of a mistake and the risk of malware, and two high profile examples … on balance, it probably is time to tape over your PC’s camera and microphone to minimize the risk that you share something inadvertently via your camera.
And for the fans of duct tape, that’s probably overkill when covering up a cam, I’d suggest using something a bit more easily removable!
What do you do to protect your ‘Privacy’ and keep yourself safe from potential hackers?
Well, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just need a bit of tape to cover his laptop webcam and mic jack in order to protect his privacy.
Yes, Zuck also does the same as the FBI Director James Comey.
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Zuckerberg posted a photo on Tuesday to celebrate Instagram’s 500 Million monthly user
Mark Zuckerberg’s social media accounts on Pinterest and Twitter were hacked by an organization who call themselves OurMine. The hackers cheekily sent Mr. Zuckerberg a message from his account.
Mark Zuckerberg’s social media accounts on Pinterest and Twitter were hacked by an organization calling itself OurMine. The hackers cheekily sent Mr. Zuckerberg a message from his account, saying, “We are just testing your security”.
The hackers reportedly gained access through account details exposed by the LinkedIn data breach in 2012 when over 100 million accounts were compromised.
Two questions immediately spring to mind. Firstly – why hasn’t he activated stronger login protocol using 2 factor authentication through his mobile phone? And secondly – has Mr. Zuckerberg not changed his password since then?
In 2011, Facebook itself introduced ‘Login Approvals’, so that when you login in from an unknown device, it authenticates you through a text message sent to your mobile phone. The blog post on Facebook’s page that announces the feature states:
“As more individuals and businesses turn to Facebook to share and connect with others, people are looking to take more control over protecting their account from unauthorized access”
You would assume that Mr. Zuckerberg would understand the risks associated with his own social media accounts, having developed a solution for users of his own social media site.
We can all understand that we sometimes use the same password on several sites; we are all guilty of that. But to not have changed the password on those sites after such a big data breach, such as LinkedIn’s, could be described as naïve – maybe irresponsible.
Let’s not judge too quickly, though, because we have to remember that most celebrities and billionaires don’t Tweet and post content themselves (I do all my own!). It’s normal to have teams of marketing and public relations people controlling their online presence and identity as part of their overall brand. These teams likely have access to the same account, maybe using the same login credentials year after year. Securing an account that has shared access requires using Tweetdeck and then every user needs to setup their options authentication. Then each user signs in in with their own twitter account and has access to the shared account, they can manage their own settings and while they can setup 2 factor authentication they also might not and therefore your shared account is as strong as the weakest settings of the shared account users.
There are solutions out there that allow shared access, and Tweetdeck, for example, offers this for Twitter, but it was not released until 2015. The Twitter account of Mr. Zuckerberg has not shown a Tweet since 2012, until it was recently hacked. An account that is not used to post content is probably not thought to be a risk, which of course is wrong. And the account may not even be used to consume content.
The moral of the story is that we should:
Personally, I use the option to authenticate through my mobile phone. While this causes some inconvenience when logging in, it does provide me with the confidence that I have the best option to be secure turned on.
Mr. Zuckerberg got lucky this time around as the hackers just wanted the kudos of hacking his account. I can only imagine the chaos this caused his marketing and PR people, running around in panicked circles, vowing to never let this happen ever again.
The man who runs the biggest social network and continuously implements new security measures to boost its billion users security, himself failed to follow basics of Internet security for his own online accounts.
Yes, I’m talking about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who had his Twitter and Pinterest accounts compromised on Sunday.
The hacker group from Saudi Arabia, dubbed OurMine, claimed
What’s the coolest part of the Iron Man movies?
The hyper-intelligent Artificial Intelligence that helps Tony Stark by doing data analysis, charging his armor, presenting information at crucial times and doing other business operations.
That’s right — we are talking about J.A.R.V.I.S., Iron Man’s personal assistant.
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We all dream of having one of its kinds, and
