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Facebook Data Leaks, Smart Speaker Laser Attack, BlueKeep in the Wild
You’re listening to the Shared Security Podcast, exploring the trust you put in people, apps, and technology…with your host, Tom Eston.
In episode 94 for November 11th 2019: Facebook’s Group API data leak and 7,000 pages of leaked Facebook documents, lasers that can control your smart speakers, and details about the BlueKeep vulnerability now being exploited in the wild.
Are you like most of us that have to be constantly checking our smart phones for the latest Tweet or Facebook update? How many of us are actually doing this while we’re driving? Distracted driving is one of the most common ways accidents and even deaths happen on the road these days and a lot of states in the US have started enacting laws prohibiting the complete use of smart phones while driving. It’s just not worth putting ourselves and others at risk so I’ve committed to not use my smart phone while driving, and so should you. One easy solution I recommend is to store your smart phone in a Silent Pocket Faraday Sleeve. It’s small enough to store in your glove compartment or arm rest and it’s quick and easy to use. Pick one up today by visiting silentpocket.com and receive 15% off your order at checkout using discount code “sharedsecurity”.
Welcome to the Shared Security Weekly Blaze Podcast where we update you on this week’s most important cybersecurity and privacy news. These podcasts are published every Monday and are 15 minutes or less quickly giving you “news that you can use”.
It seems that we can’t go a single week from reporting news about yet another Facebook data leak or controversy. This week is no exception as Facebook disclosed details about a leak of private group information such as post details, number of group users, and depending if group users opted-in: names and profile pictures. This data may have been accessed by about 100 partners which had video streaming and social media management apps integrated into certain Facebook Groups. Apparently, the issue happened when Facebook was restricting access to the Groups API back in 2018. Facebook said that they believe 11 of these partners had accessed group information in the last 60 days and that they would kindly ask all 100 partners to delete any Facebook user data that they may have collected. Facebook also stated that there has been no evidence that Facebook user data was abused in any way but will be conducting audits to confirm that said partners have deleted user data as requested.
In other Facebook news, NBC News released close to 7,000 pages of leaked documents that showed how Facebook was using user data as a bargaining chip with third-party developers. The data, which included 4000 internal Facebook emails, web chats, and documents show that Facebook would give certain types of user data to certain high-value customers while also restricting certain types of user data to rival companies. For example, Amazon got special access to more user data because they were paying for ads on Facebook and another company called MessageMe was completely cut off from user data because Facebook felt it was a competitor to its own Messenger product. Meanwhile, it was revealed that Facebook was using these moves to publicly show that they were protecting user privacy. This latest news is once again leaving Facebook in hot water with a continuing onslaught of lawsuits by former customers and government inquires.
Oh and on top of this all this news, Facebook announced a new logo which I’m certain will make all of their privacy problems go away. The new logo, which is attempting to show that all of the Facebook “property” apps are similar, seems to be an attempt to make it harder for government regulators to
Published on 6 years, 1 month ago