Twitter on Omid Farhang

Emma Stone’s twitter hacked

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:24:00 +0000

3/22/2013: Emma Stone revealed that she was not behind the ambiguous tweets concerning boyfriend Andrew Garfield and co-star Shailene Woodley that sparked cheating rumors.

Speculation surrounded Stone’s mysterious “tweet and delete” spree over the past few months.

Emma addressed the rumors on an On Air with Ryan Seacrest radio interview.

One tweet in particular on her Twitter appeared to be an anagram that solved to read, “Andrew and Shailene sitting in a tree.”

Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Joins Instagram, Posts Pics

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:08:00 +0000

Mashable: Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined Instagram last week and so far has posted four photos. Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 chose to share shots that likely show scenes of Ramadan.

It comes as a surprise to some that a person who has been slow to get onboard with social media trends — not to mention Iran’s stance toward its citizens’ use of the social media — has joined Instagram. His Twitter account has 4,337 followers so far, and links to his Instagram account. Also posted on his Twitter account are links to YouTube videos and stories about his visits with other world and religious leaders.

New Dr Who girl Jenna-Louise Coleman's name exploited by Twitter sex video scammers

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:41:00 +0000

SophosLabs: Jenna-Louise Coleman has been unveiled as the new “Doctor Who” companion, joining the BBC TV time traveller in his TARDIS later this year.

“Doctor Who” is one of Britain’s biggest television shows, and is popular elsewhere around the world, so it was no surprise to find 25-year-old actress Jenna Louise-Coleman’s name was a trending topic on Twitter today.

Unfortunately, there are frequently mischief-makers, scammers and cybercriminals waiting to exploit a popular search term or hashtag.

Free iPad 3? It doesn't exist! Beware of scams

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:41:00 +0000

It is widely anticipated that Apple will announce a new version of its iPad tablet computer in San Francisco on March 7th.

An invitation sent to journalists, inviting them to an event organized by Apple, has fueled speculation even further as it appears to show a close-up of someone using an iPad.

Could it be the new iPad with a much lusted for improved display and souped-up processor? Only time will tell..

Twitter enables HTTPS for all signed-in users

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:02:00 +0000

The H-Online: Twitter has announced that it has now enabled HTTPS by default for all users signed into the micro-blogging service. By using HTTPS, all user information including log-in credentials transmitted to the company’s servers are sent using SSL encryption. This means that all data is transmitted in encrypted form and can no longer be read and exploited for fraudulent activities by attackers using tools such as the Firesheep extension for Firefox.

Twitter Malware Attack: Photos of Dead Gaddafi

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:38:00 +0000

Mashable: As reports of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s death circulate on the Internet, so is a gruesome cellphone photo of what appears to be his severely wounded body and another that appears to be his dead body. Both are likely opportunities for spammers with bad intentions.

The first photo was distributed by the news agency AFP after commanders for Libya’s transitional military, the National Transitional Council (NTC), said they had captured Gaddafi after invading his hometown of Sirte. On Thursday, an NTC spokesperson told the New York Times Gaddafi had been killed, but the U.S. State Department had still not confirmed his death as of 10:00 a.m. ET.

Twitter finally released a "Stalkers" app? No, it's a phishing scam

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:21:00 +0000

Sophos Labs: Twitter users are being hit today by messages claiming to link to a new app from Twitter which will track your stalkers.

However, the messages are really designed to steal your Twitter usernames and passwords.

Here’s a typical message that users are seeing:

Twitter finally released an app that tracks your “Stalkers” get it here [LINK]

If you click on the link you are taken to what appears to be a legitimate Twitter page, asking you to confirm your username and password before the “Stalkers” app can access your account.

Twitter spam and viagra galore

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:44:00 +0000

Spam mails claiming to be from Twitter that send you to pharmacy sites are a popular wheeze for spammers, and here we go again.

It seems I have “two PR messages from Twitter”. If that wasn’t enough to get me clicking (it isn’t), I can also join in on sports conversations, argue with bloggers and tell the World when I stumble into some form of natural disaster.

Hammering one of the many links will actually take me to 219(dot)84(dot)119(dot)56/afternoon(dot)html, which will send me to pharmacydrugstorehealthprofessionals(dot)net.

Twitter goes secure – say goodbye to Firesheep with "Always use HTTPS" option

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:30:00 +0000

Sophos Labs: Good news on the social networking security front is that Twitter has finally got its act together to offer an Always use HTTPS option.

If you turn on this option, all of your personalized interaction with Twitter will be encrypted – not only while you are logging in, but also while you are posting tweets.

A lot of people fail to recognize the value of using HTTPS on Twitter. As long as your username and password are sent over HTTPS, so no-one can sniff them out of the ether, who cares if your tweets go over plain HTTP? After all, a tweet is meant to be public.

Twitter using Gamification to increase followers

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:30:00 +0000

I just read an interesting post in ThinkVitamin.com and wanted to share with you:

I just signed up for a new Twitter account and as I was going through the on-boarding process, I noticed Twitter has introduced a bit of Gamification to encourage you to follow more people.

They use a simple progress-bar metaphor to encourage you to follow 10 people. I like it.

Twitter to developers: enough with the third-party apps

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:24:00 +0000

Twitter has issued a statement to its mailing list encouraging third-party developers to cease creating applications that use the Twitter API solely to duplicate the functionality offered by Twitter’s own official clients. Citing an effort to improve consistency of the Twitter user experience, the social networking behemoth is exercising more control over how its service is utilized.

Developers who already have an established audience, such as those who create such popular clients as TweetDeck and Seesmic, may continue developing their applications and supporting their user bases. However, developers are encouraged to cease creating new applications that duplicate existing functionality. With 750,000 applications in existence that already use the Twitter API, it is quite clear why Twitter wants to stop the tide of new apps and grab the reins of its users’ experience: it wants to own the user experience.

Who’s Using Twitter?

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:54:00 +0000

Mashable: The Pew Center is out with a new report that focuses on Twitter usage in the U.S., and it reveals that 6% of the entire U.S. adult population uses Twitter.

Young adults ages 18 to 29, minority groups — 13% black and 18% Hispanic — and urban dwellers are among the groups with the highest level of Twitter use. The report reveals that women and those with college educations are also slightly more likely than other groups to tweet.

Twitter Celebrates 100 Million New Accounts in 2010

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:46:00 +0000

Twitter has seen a phenomenal amount of growth in the past year. In fact, the company claims more than 100 million new accounts were opened in 2010.

To celebrate, the startup has created an infographic showing off some of the most notable new accounts from this year.

It’s quite a motley crew; celebs such as Billy Idol, Tiger Woods, Sylvester Stalone and Cher rub digital elbows with world leaders, including the Dalai Lama, Donald Rumsfeld and Queen Noor of Jordan.

Twitter Trend Poisoning Cookbook

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:30:00 +0000

Symantec Connect: We have become familiar enough with malware creators poisoning popular search engine terms through SEO techniques in order to deliver their malicious files to a greater pool of unsuspecting users. Other popular services such as Twitter have not escaped the watchful eyes of the miscreants. This attack involves pumping out many of the same tweets with different accounts to push them into the Twitter trending list. That way more people are likely to see them even if the individual user accounts being used to send the tweets don’t have that many followers. Incidentally many of the accounts used in this attack don’t have that many followers and are quite fresh – meaning they are probably fake accounts set up specifically for the purpose of spamming tweets.

Malicious Goo.gl Links Spreading on Twitter [WARNING]

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:19:00 +0000

Mashable: A large number of messages containing only the link “goo.gl/R7f68” has appeared on Twitter today, redirecting the users to various malware-laden sites.

The messages are mostly coming from disposable accounts, but they also appear on some accounts that appear to be genuine, which indicates that there’s a worm spreading and sending the messages from infected accounts. Furthermore, all of the messages containing the link are sent from the mobile version of Twitter.

Hacker Takes Responsibility for Wikileaks Takedown

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 21:47:00 +0000

Mashable: The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that took down WikiLeaks as the site published secret U.S. embassy cables over the weekend could be the work of a single hacker, working for his own agenda.

The hacker, called the Jester (or th3j35t3r), describes himself as a “hacktivist for good” and posts the message “TANGO DOWN” after a successful attack, together with a link of the sites he takes down. The focus of his attacks, the Jester claims in his Twitter Bio, is “obstructing the lines of communication for terrorists, sympathizers, fixers, facilitators, oppressive regimes and other general bad guys.”

Yahoo announces more changes

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:50:00 +0000

THE INTERNET SEARCH OUTFIT without a search engine, Yahoo has announced a package of products that it hopes will make it more relevant again.

At the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Yahoo showed off a host of products that it claimed would deliver to consumers a more “personally relevant Web experience with new social and local features”.

You guessed it, more social networking and more experiences than you can poke a stick at.

iTunes Store links up with Twitter via Ping

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:42:00 +0000

BetaNews: Ping, the social music service introduced as a part of iTunes 10 in September, can now be linked with Twitter, the popular micro blogging service announced Thursday.

Starting today, Ping users can connect their iTunes Ping account to their Twitter account and share their listening activity in their Twitter feed. Tweets sent from Ping include the album and artist information, album cover, song preview, and a link to the iTunes store to buy the music mentioned.

WordPress Adds Feature for Embedding Tweets

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 16:03:00 +0000

Mashable: Months ago, Twitter released a clunky tool called Blackbird Pie for embedding tweets in blog posts. Today WordPress has radically simplified and improved tweet embedding with a new feature, also named Twitter Blackbird Pie.

Beginning today, WordPress.com users simply need to copy a tweet’s URL and paste it on a line by itself to embed it in a blog post.

Pasted URLs are converted into full tweets, which means these embedded tweets look as good as screenshots, but include the link back to the tweet, a link to the source and a retweet option. The new feature will also save users time — letting them avoid the much more manual process of snapping screenshots of tweets.

Facebook is fastest social network; Twitter, MySpace slowest

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:00:00 +0000

On average, response times and availability of five major social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and MySpace) has improved this past quarter, according to Web analytics company AlertSite. This is great news given that all of them (save for possibly MySpace) have a quickly growing number of users.

Despite a few outages, however, Facebook is still the fastest social network in terms of average response time. In the most recent third quarter (July 1 to September 30), Facebook shaved 0.02 seconds off its second quarter average response time, down to 1.00 seconds. Twitter and Myspace came in the last two spots with average response times of 2.93 seconds and 3.61 seconds, respectively. That being said, Twitter’s performance improved the most over the last quarter among the social networks studied: more than 35 percent.