Technical Tips From A NYC IT Consultant

Facebook Christmas Worm Spreads Holiday Infection — InformationWeek.

PandaLabs, the research arm of anti-malware company Panda Security, says that a variant of the Koobface worm, Koobface.GK, is being spread through the posting of malicious links of Facebook wall pages.

Attempting to play the video or to click on the links on the page leads to an infection attempt, which will compromise the victim’s computer if successful.

The links take Facebook users to a fake embedded video player that offers a Christmas greeting, in keeping with the tendency of cybercriminals to try to exploit current or seasonal events.

I’m still wary about social networking. I’m in LinkedIn for professional reasons, but haven’t gotten into the Facebook, MySpace, Twitter stuff. First of all, they pull crap like changing the Terms of Service without giving you a chance to opt out:

The Palo Alto-based social networking company now says in its terms of service that it will have unending and irrevocable license to use any content uploaded to its service, according to a posting on The Consumerist, a blog owned by the publisher of Consumer Reports

I don’t know who’s looking at the photos or what they’re doing with it. Besides the fact that I like some anonymity on the internet (yeah, I don’t want people, especially the  wierdos from elementary school searching my name and learning everything about me, my family, my work, etc), I don’t need companies changing the Terms of Service on the fly, especially to say they own my content forever. More info here from Neowin.net.

In general, when you put your name out on the internet, your photos, your blog, your messages, your rants…they’re there forever. They are stored on servers that are backed up constantly. What you post now, or write now, can be out there for a very long time, even if you try to delete it.  My suggestion is to stay anonymous. Use multiple email addresses, each for different things, don’t post your name, address, telephone number for all to see.