Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

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  • Social malware and cunning tricks

    Social malware and cunning tricks

    Last week an interesting media release from anti-virus company Bitdefender appeared in the inbox describing a tricky little scam that promises to change Facebook page colours but actually grabs a user’s information to set up fake blogs associated with the victim’s email address.

    Those fake blogs in turn link to a working from home scam, the type which are becoming depressingly common online. No doubt the malware authors have some sort of interest in that scheme.

    What makes this malware interesting is how it brings together a range of opportunities for the malware writer – social media, apps, data aggregation, identity spoofing and the Ponzi affiliate schemes that are prevalent as people try to find new ways to supplement their income.

    Many people say “I’d never get caught by these scams” but the reality is the scammers are rat-cunning, if not clever. Assuming you’re immune to these because you’re too smart, or you use a Mac or there’s nothing of value on your computer is a risk in itself.

    Here’s the media release from Bitdefender.

    Google Chrome App grabs identities, forges blogs in victims’ name to promote scam

    Bitdefender catches Facebook colour scam with both hands in cookie jar

    SYDNEY/AUCKLAND – November 19, 2012 – A Google Chrome app that promises to change the colour of Facebook accounts instead nabs authentication cookies and generates dozens of blogs registered to the victims’ Gmail address, in a new scam analysed by Bitdefender, the leading global antivirus company.

    Once the malicious app is installed from Google’s Chrome Web Store, it starts displaying a large Google Ads banner redirecting users to a “work from home scam.” When clicking the sign-up link, users are redirected to a fraudulent website.

    “Scammers gave a new twist to the old change-your-Facebook-colour scheme that’s been luring users to fraudulent websites to grab credentials and other sensitive data,” says Chief Security Strategist, Catalin Cosoi. “By creating dozens of blogs for a single account, the scam spreads like wildfire among Facebook friends.”

    The blogs generating under the email address of the victims, which are used in further disseminating the scam, have registered a large number of hits among users in the US, the UK, Germany, Spain, Romania, and other countries.

    The app can also post wall messages on the victims’ account. The messages use friend tagging to convince the victim’s friends to visit the blog domains. Each time the app posts on a users’ timeline, it links to one of the auto-generated blogs as to avoid blacklisting.

    Bitdefender encourages users to use an antivirus solution and the free application Safego, which protects Facebook and Twitter accounts from scams, spam, malware and private data exposure.

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  • Here’s where the fees go

    Here’s where the fees go

    Becoming a partner of Goldman Sachs is a path to riches and is admission into the highest elites of the Western World’s corporatist society.

    The Guardian looks at the process of becoming a Goldman Sachs partner from joining the company as an ‘analyst’ or ‘associate’ through to achieving the highest partner level.

    What’s notable about the story are the layers of management and their grandiose titles; the position of “vice-president” being a case in point where it is the next step up for associates and analysts rather than the seat of power such a title suggests.

    The sheer number of these vice-presidents and Managing Directors, estimated in the hundreds by the Guardian, is another notable point. The fact there are nearly 500 partner positions in the firm indicates just how fat the fees must be to pay these people.

    If Goldman Sachs and their clients were private companies their fees and remuneration would be their own business. Since the Global Financial Crisis, Goldman Sachs and its too-big-to-fail competitors now are explicitly underwritten by the world’s taxpayers.

    That should make us all concerned at just how much our grandchildren are going to have to pay for the generous lifestyles of today’s banking elites.

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  • Should we trust our kids to Apple?

    Should we trust our kids to Apple?

    If you watch a group of students waiting for the school bus one notable thing that stands out is how they struggle with the slab of books stuffed into their backpacks.

    Just taking the health and safety concerns of effects of several kilos of textbooks on young spines makes the idea of giving students tablet computers attractive. But are we risking locking our schools into the walled gardens and corporate policies of Apple, Amazon and the ebook publishers?

    Apple certainly see education as being the key area with their product keynote two weeks ago being peppered with references to how great the iPad and iPad Mini are for schools, students and educators.

    In an anti-Apple rant – something becoming common among tech journalists fed up of being rudely treated by Apple’s PR people – Current magazine’s Patrick Avenell describes one PR executive’s interview for a media relations job at Apple’s Australian office.

    “It was the most bizarre job interview I’ve ever had,” this executive said. “I was asked what my perception of Apple was, and I said all the usual stuff like ‘innovative, design focused, forefront of technology’, and I was told that was completely wrong — It was all about education and learning.”

    That focus on education hasn’t been missed by schools as dozens of private schools are issuing tablet computers to replace student laptops and state schools have started experimenting with them. My local public school’s Parents & Citizens group has funded some as a pilot for their students.

    Most of these tablet computers are iPads and the much of the take up is driven by the gushing media coverage of Apple’s devices. Often schools aren’t considering alternatives to the iPad or whether tablet computers are appropriate at all.

    Audrey Watters at Hack Education has a very critique of the media’s role in promoting iPads and her points about Digital Rights Management and product lifecycles are pertinent.

    The product lifecycle aspect is something that should concern parents and school administrators – these are not cheap purchases with tablet computers costing between $250 and $700 each and few of them will stand up to more than two years of constant use, particularly when being thrown around in school bags.

    Should a tablet last two years, it will probably be superseded at the end of that time, which is a good illustration of the risks of being locked into a walled garden.

    On top of the ongoing replacement costs of tablet computers, the cost of licensing ebooks threatens to be higher than traditional books as each student’s tablet requires its own license for each book rather than the school owning a set and giving copies out to the class studying the text each year.

    The ebook also kills second hand books book market and gives text book companies a nice recurring income which is why educational publishers like Pearson and McGraw-Hill are so enthusiastic about putting their titles onto tablet computers.

    Anybody who tries to circumvent the control of Apple or any other tablet manufacturer risks being stripped of their devices as a lady in Norway found when Amazon’s computer decided she had done something wrong.

    That was by no means the first time such a thing had happened, in 2009 Amazon removed George Orwell’s 1984 from the Kindle store which meant the title disappeared from their customers’ tablets.

    Along with being obsessed with corporate intellectual property rights – there is a difference to the rights of authors – tech companies bring their own morality onto their products.

    While some educators may share Facebook’s revulsion towards nipples and breastfeeding, having titles deleted mid term because of a DRM snafu or change in corporate policy is not something that leads to good outcomes, or wise expenditure of scarce funds.

    It may be that tablet computers are the right choice for schools and iPads are the right models to deliver the ebooks, but like all technology choices there are real maintenance and lifecycle costs along with management risks which may not seem obvious at first.

    At a time when schools are being constrained by budget cuts, it would be a tragedy to waste billions and lock a generation of educators into one or two company’s technology platforms and licensing structures.

    We need to consider these costs and risks very carefully before we choose to lock students into the corporate worlds of Apple, Amazon or Google.

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  • Why would a plumber want a broadband connection?

    Why would a plumber want a broadband connection?

    A question that still bugs me from the Cloud + NBN forum this week is “why would a plumber want a broadband connection.”

    It doesn’t seem so long ago that question was asked about mobile phones – in the early 1990s the question made sense as cellphones in those days were heavy bulky things that sat in cars. They were of little use to plumbers or anyone else except the executives and politicians who could afford them.

    Today there are few plumbers who don’t have a mobile phone.

    Why would plumbers want a broadband connection? Job scheduling, inventory management, stock ordering, quoting and invoicing are five tasks that spring to mind.

    One of the big areas for all business is research and training. Keeping up with industry changes, particularly in fields where professional development is required to maintain your license or accreditation, is made far easier with online learning services.

    For the plumber, being able to find out what’s new on the market and how to install or maintain the latest products keeps them in the marketplace.

    Then there’s the necessity of being listed online – without a broadband connection the local plumber will struggle to keep up to date with the sites customers are using to find tradesmen.

    Even asking the question “why should a plumber be online?” betrays just how many of us aren’t understanding how business is changing.

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  • Xero and cloud computing

    Xero and cloud computing

    I’m at the Xero Partner Conference in Melbourne this weekend to hear how the cloud accounting service is travelling.

    Talking to the other attendees it’s interesting just how many accountants and bookkeepers are moving clients over because of the cloud benefits.

    Encouraging for Xero, there’s a big turnout of developers as well, one of the reasons for the successes of Microsoft Windows and Apple iOS is the size and diversity of their partners, particularly those writing software.

    The opening session of the conference itself will be interesting as Xero CEO Rod Drury gives his overview of the industry. With competitor MYOB in trouble with its customer base, this should be an entertaining speech.

    While Xero aren’t the only game in town, they are one of the leaders in getting other businesses to adopt cloud services. The conference should be interesting in hearing how the sector is developing and how organisations can use cloud technologies.

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