Facebook deploys a new anti-clickbait algorithm for News Feed

Facebook’s new anti-clickbait algorithm will further remove bogus headlines

In an effort to reduce the number of clickbait stories that show up in users’ feeds and to keep posts relevant, Facebook has once again gone ahead and tweaked its algorithm that controls its News Feed. In the past too, Facebook has made changes to the news algorithm many number of times.

User Experience Researcher, Kristin Hendrix and Research Scientist, Alex Peysakhovich at Facebook explain clickbait stories as those with headlines that deliberately leave out important information or else try to mislead readers and get them to click their story.

For instance, the new Facebook algorithm can identify headlines like “What she saw at this moment will SHOCK YOU!” or “You won’t believe what will happen next” or “He Put Garlic In His Shoes Before Going To Bed And What Happens Next Is Hard To Believe” or “The Dog Barked At The Deliveryman And His Reaction Was Priceless.” and it doesn’t assign only a binary like “Yes, clickbait” or “not clickbait”, but it gives each story a score. The algorithm mainly looks for phrases often used in clickbait headlines but not in genuine headlines, similar to email spam filters.

The system classifies posts that are clickbait and which Pages and web domains these posts come from. Links posted from or shared from Pages or domains that constantly post clickbait headlines will appear lower in News Feed. If a Page stops posting clickbait headlines, their posts will stop being affected by this change, which in turn would lead to improvement in News Feed over period of time. This new update will have a huge impact on your page, if you are a spammer.

The change supports Facebook’s recently announced “News Feed Values”, which concentrates on “Friends and Family Come First” that resulted in last month’s feed change to de-emphasize news publishers.

Facebook has published a guide for bloggers, news agencies, and anybody else on how to avoid clickbait titles. Facebook advises that publishers avoid omission of important information to fool users into clicking, like “You’ll Never Believe Who Tripped and Fell on the Red Carpet…” Instead, Facebook recommends calls to action and text prompts. It also suggests avoiding exaggeration like “This Pen Never Ever Runs Out of Ink! Get It While It Lasts!”

“Pages should avoid headlines that withhold information required to understand what the content of the article is and headlines that exaggerate the article to create misleading expectations,” Facebook explained in its page. “We don’t post clickbait and we always appreciate a new like on our page on Facebook. We rely on people like you.” Facebook added.

Click here to read more on Facebook’s clickbait.

SOURCES: TECHWORM

Apple and Facebook behind the shutting down of KickassTorrents

How Apple and Facebook helped to bust the world’s biggest torrent site, KickassTorrents

KickassTorrents (KAT), one of the most popular websites for illegal file sharing was shut down after the alleged 30-year-old Ukranian owner and operator, Artem “Tirm” Vaulin was arrested in Poland on Wednesday at the behest of the U.S. government. The U.S. authorities also seized seven of the site’s domains, all of which are now offline.

Vaulin has been charged for criminal copyright infringement and money laundering. He has also been accused of illegally reproducing and distributing hundreds of millions of copies of movies, video games, TV shows and music albums totalling more than $1 billion. The U.S. is now waiting to extradite him.

So, what led to the downfall of KickassTorrents? Apparently, it turns out that a couple of purchases on iTunes and email helped to bring down the mastermind behind KickassTorrents. It is also said Apple and Facebook were among the companies that handed over data to the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security initially exposed information about Vaulin by tracing the IP addresses used to host the KickassTorrents domains, according to a 48-page criminal complaint (PDF) filed with the U.S. District Court in Chicago.

That led investigators to a Canadian ISP (Internet service provider), which turned over server data that disclosed numerous files, including emails and user information about KickassTorrents’ operators.

Not only was he operating a KickasssTorrents Facebook page, but was doing so with a personal email address.

How personal? It was a ‘@me.com’ address, which is owned by Apple (and is the forerunner to @icloud.com). The account was used to make iTunes purchases from two IP addresses — both of which also accessed a Facebook account promoting KickassTorrents.

His email was discovered when authorities sent Facebook a warrant for information having to do with the site’s page. For example, Facebook handed over IP-address logs from the KAT fanpage to the U.S. authorities. From there, the U.S. Government turned to Apple. They were then able to cross-reference this with an IP-address Vaulin used for an iTunes transaction.

“Records provided by Apple showed that tirm@me.com conducted an iTunes transaction using IP Address 109.86.226.203 on or about July 31, 2015. The same IP Address was used on the same day to login into the KAT Facebook Account,” Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan said. His IP addresses linked to KAT’s Facebook page was also used to access Vaulin’s Coinbase account, suggesting that the Bitcoin wallet also assisted in the investigation.

By handing over user data to the government, Apple and Facebook were acting within the legal limits, and probably there was nothing about the government’s requests that raised any red flags. It is just a normal routine.

The fact that Vaulin was using a single, personal email address for so many features and services is absurd. To just have one single email linked to something as personal as your Apple ID, which is directly applicable to you is just unbelievably unwise. This is likely going to seal his fate.

While KickassTorrents itself is dead, a clone of the file-sharing site has already appeared online, which may shut down shortly. Whether KickassTorrents or Vaulin will make a Pirate Bay-style comeback, only time will tell.

SOURCES: FOSSBYTES

Now Password sharing is a Federal Crime

Facebook, Netflix & HBO Go Password Sharing Is Now a Federal Crime

Sharing passwords on Netflix, HBO Go & Facebook would now be counted as a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling this week that officially considers sharing passwords counts as a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Both Netflix and HBO Go passwords fall into this category. Also, if you are not careful, getting caught sharing these passwords could result in jail time.

This new law was set up as a catch-all for hacking has been widely used to prosecute behaviour that bears no resemblance to hacking. This ruling specifically references the case of David Nosal, a former employee of the International research firm Korn/Ferry, who used a co-worker’s password to access a computer after his access was revoked.

The decision is a nightmare scenario for civil liberties groups, who claim that such a broad interpretation of the CFAA means millions of Americans are violating the federal law every time they share account information in regards to sites such as Facebook, Spotify and the many other popular streaming services, which also include Amazon Prime and Hulu. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who presided over this latest ruling noted the following.

“[This ruling] threatens to criminalize all sorts of innocuous conduct engaged in daily by ordinary citizens.”

Judge Margaret McKeown, who was in the majority vote, had this to say about the unprecedented ruling.

“Nosal and various amici spin hypotheticals about the dire consequences of criminalizing password sharing. But these warnings miss the mark in this case. This appeal is not about password sharing.”

McKeown’s viewpoint is that the issue is not about password sharing per se, but that it’s about the one employee who had no authority from the firm to give her password to any former employees, which plays into the CFAA’s language that states it’s illegal to access a computer system “without authorization.” McKeown fully believes that phrasing is concrete and without wiggle room, according to Motherboard.

McKeown goes onto state the following.

“Without authorization [is]an unambiguous, non-technical term that, given its plain and ordinary meaning, means accessing a protected computer without permission.”

The big question this raises is, ‘Who gives the authorization?’ While Nosal wasn’t granted authorization by Korn/Ferry to use the password, he was authorized the use of the password by the friend in charge of maintaining the password for security purposes. What the ruling declares in the long run is that we are no longer authorized to give a friend or loved one our Netflix or Facebook password. Only Netflix or Facebook as a company can specifically authorize who gets to use the password beyond the person who is assigned to the account. Once you share that password without getting an ok from the source company, you are in direct violation of breaking federal law.

However, Judge Stephen Reinhardt disagreed, who appears to be an authority on hacking. Reinhardt expressed concern that decision by the majority criminalizes all password-sharing, including giving out your parent’s Netflix password to your friends. In a dissenting opinion, he writes:

“This case is about password sharing. People frequently share their passwords, notwithstanding the fact that websites and employers have policies prohibiting it. In my view, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) does not make the millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals.

“In the everyday situation that should concern us all, a friend or colleague accessing an account with a shared password would most certainly believe-and with good reason-that his access had been ‘authorized’ by the account holder who shared his password with him. The majority does not provide, nor do I see, a workable line which separates the consensual password sharing in this case from the consensual password sharing of millions of legitimate account holders, which may also be contrary to the policies of system owners. There simply is no limiting principle in the majority’s world of lawful and unlawful password sharing.”

He accused his colleagues’ decision “loses sight of the anti-hacking purpose of the CFAA, and despite our warning, threatens to criminalize all sorts of innocuous conduct engaged in daily by ordinary citizens.” After all, in their terms of service, Netflix and especially HBO Go say only subscribers should be streaming their content. It was also noted that each of the 50 states have their own, more narrow rules and laws when it comes to computer trespassing. It is Reinhardt’s belief that this particular case would have been better suited for civil, not criminal, proceedings.

This ruling in the long run is unlikely to affect anyone who is currently sharing their social media or streaming passwords, unless HBO and Netflix unexpectedly decide that they want to indict millions of their customers. At this point, neither company has made a move to do so. But an example has been set, and should get anyone thinking about sharing their password with a third party pause.

SOURCES: TECHWORM

FACEBOOK MALWARE

Beware! Facebook “Comment Tagging Malware” hits 10,000 victims in 48 Hours

Recently, Kaspersky Lab Security expert uncovered a malware attack that tricked almost 10,000 Facebook users into sharing their email address and passwords. According to the sources, this cyber attack is spreading very fast and infecting users in every 20 users.

According to Kaspersky Lab, between 24 and June 27, the social network received a malware attack affecting about 10,000 users worldwide, and the affected countries were Brazil, Poland, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Greece, Portugal, Tunisia, Venezuela, Germany, and Israel.

The scam, which involved an email sent to users claiming that they had been mentioned in a Facebook. The message was actually initiated by the attackers and unleashed a two-stage attack. “Between the 24th and 27th June, thousands of unsuspecting consumers received a message from a Facebook friend saying they’d mentioned them in a comment. The message had in fact been initiated by attackers and unleashed a two-stage attack” Kaspersky Lab said.

The first stage was to download a trojan into the victim’s computer that used to install a chrome browser extension. By installing a Chrome extension the second stage comes into play. Whenever the victim tries to log in their Facebook through the compromised Chrome browser they end up losing the Facebook account.

“The first stage downloaded a Trojan onto the user’s computer that installed, among other things, a malicious Chrome browser extension. This enabled the second stage, the takeover of the victim’s Facebook account when they logged back into Facebook through the compromised browser” Kaspersky lab said

According to the Kaspersky lab, The successful attack gave hackers the ability to change the privacy settings, steal data and spread the infection through the victim’s Facebook friends or undertake other malicious activity such as spam, identity theft.

Kaspersky also said the malware attempt to preserve itself by a black-listing entrance to several websites, especially those related to the security software providers.

Kaspersky lab also mentioned that Windows operating systems were at the elevated danger. Whereas Android and iOS were at no risk because the malware used libraries are not compatible with these operating systems.

Ido Naor, Senior Security Researcher, Global Research and Analysis Team, Kaspersky Lab said “Two aspects of this attack stand out. Firstly, the delivery of the malware was extremely efficient, reaching thousands of users in only 48 hours. Secondly, the response from consumers and the media was almost as fast. Their reaction raised awareness of the campaign and drove prompt action and investigation by the providers concerned”

So if you think that you may be infected then you must run a malware scan on your computer and look for suspicious Chrome extension. If you managed to find the unusual Chrome extension then you need to remove it as soon as possible and log out from your facebook profile.

Here are the Basic cyber-safety practices from Kaspersky Lab:

• Install an antimalware solution on all devices and keep OS software up-to-date.
• Avoid clicking on links in messages from people you don’t know, or in unexpected messages from friends.
• Exercise caution at all times when online and on social media networks: if something looks even slightly suspicious, it probably is.
• Implement appropriate privacy settings on social media networks such as Facebook.

SOURCE: TECHVIRAL