Facebook Exploit … Social Engineering & Javascript Injection

This morning I got an e-mail … the typical “[Person] suggested you like [Something]” from Facebook. Typically, this kind of stuff is SPAM; but I checked it out anyways. However, when I got to the page, I didn’t observe just spam; in fact, I observed a cunning exploitation which allows the page to run whatever Javascript code it wishes. It uses a combination of social engineering to prompt the user to perform actions to get a ‘reward’. In the process, the user inadvertently executes Javascript code in their browser.

Watch this video I recorded to see it live in action:

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Getting the sale: How MTW:ED increased subscriptions by 33%

Last month I re-built and re-launched MTW:ED, a expiring domain name data web-service. In terms of the data that MTW:ED collects, nothing has changed. The aim of the re-make was simple: make it easier for both new and existing subscribers to see what MTW:ED does, access MTW:ED’s data and ultimately subscribe to the service. READ MORE

Leaving MySpace…

I haven’t been on MySpace for a long time. In my opinion, it has become a useless website; social networking has moved on. Even when it was “in”, it was ugly and difficult to use. Since becoming dormant, I had no use for my account and decided to close it… READ MORE

Goo.gl URL Shortener (Online version)

Get My Goo (http://goo.gl/9wd5) has just lanched, making it easy to create goo.gl short links without using the Google Toolbar or Google Reader. Simply enter your URL and a cool goo.gl URL will be instantly created. READ MORE

Linode: You’re Amazing! (MediaTemple: You’re not)

Earlier this month, I had been suffering from extremely unstable service from (mt) MediaTemple; this caused quite considerable downtime. In fact, it was so bad that some of my hosted websites became unusable for 2 DAYS! I understand that hosts have problems from time to time, but 2 days!? This is just totally unacceptable, and so I decided to pack my bags and look for a more reliable host.

I had Linode (aff), a Virtual Private Server (VPS) host, in my bookmarks for quite a while; just in case I decided to move host in the future. A ‘Linode 360′ provides 360MB of RAM, 16 GB of storage and 200 GB of data transfer for a mere $19.95 per month. {(mt) MediaTemple offer ‘more’, but you are unlikely to get anywhere near using it without overaging on ‘GPUs’ or database usage; I was eventually forced to buy a MySQL container, and my sites receive very little traffic at all.} READ MORE

Re: ‘Merry Christmas from Google’

I have just received an e-mail from Google, with a Christmas gift:

Hello,

As we near the end of the year, we wanted to take a moment to thank you for the time, energy, commitment, and trust you’ve shared with us in 2009.

With sharing in mind, this year we’ve decided to do something a little different. We hope you’ll find it fits the spirit of the Christmas season.

We’re looking forward to working with you to build lasting success in 2010.

With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year,
Your Google Team

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Facebook to charge £14.99 per month

Facebook are to charge £14.99 per month to access the site, in plans to be implemented July next year. Or so a Facebook group says. READ MORE

Chat to Strangers on Facebook

A few days ago, I was thinking of ways to drive more traffic to 22Talk. Unlike my other websites, 22Talk’s traffic is more time dependent in that more than 1 user must be online at the same time for it to work at all (and lots more for it to work effectively). READ MORE

Enhance your 404 page with Related Pages

Taxomation.com have just released ‘404 widget‘ — a useful tool for helping your site’s lost users. The widget looks at the URL a visitor tried to load, and extracts keywords from it. It then runs over to Yahoo! and finds related pages from your site — all just in time to be displayed to the visitor, who can choose a page or keep searching. READ MORE

Google Launches OpenDNS Alternative

Today, Google announced the release of Google Public DNS — a complete alternative to the Domain Name System (DNS) offered by your ISP, OpenDNS and similar services. Google claims that their DNS service is fast, secure, and — unlike many ISPs and OpenDNS — they promise never to filter, block or redirect DNS responses.

From previous experience, it can be expected that Google Public DNS will only get better — but I believe that its openness and performance are reason enough for it to be adopted now. I have already switched, and you can do the same in a few seconds. READ MORE