If, by chance, you’ve received a message from a “friend” in the last few days saying that you’ve been caught on tape, it’s not true. Unless you’re Paris Hilton.

But no, she’s been tossing a dwarf. Okay, not really, but those are just two of the scams Facebook and MySpace users have been hit with recently.

The malicious software attempts to lure users in with messages ranging from “You’ve been catched on hidden cam” to the one about Hilton tossing a dwarf on the street. The messages contain a link that takes unsuspecting users to a Web page that looks like YouTube. There the page tells visitors that to view the video, they need to click on another link to download and install updated software. Those who fall for the scam are actually installing malicious software.

The worm, called Koobface, turns compromised computers into “zombie” machines that can be used in other types of online attacks. The malicious software may also include keylogger software, which can record a computer user’s keystrokes — and potentially grab passwords when they are entered on a computer.

Alexander Gostev, senior virus analyst at computer security firm Kaspersky Lab, said in a statement that this type of attack could be a successful one for hackers. “Users are very trusting of messages left by ‘friends’ on social networking sites. So the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high,” he said.

Facebook has also been alerting users to a hoax message claiming that the site is overpopulated and that some accounts soon will be deleted.

Facebook’s security page offers a few common-sense suggestions for those worried about security. (”If a link or a message seems weird, don’t click on it,” is one tip.) The company is still investigating the malware attack, according to a spokesman.

According to research firm Cloudmark, users of social networking sites are reporting a rise in spam. An average of 64 spam attacks have been reported over the last year, and 37 percent of users have noticed an increase in the last six months in unwanted messages.

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As you have no doubt heard by now, swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth Olympic gold medal in the Beijing games over the weekend, bringing his career total to 14 – the most ever for an Olympian.

All the attention that comes with all that bullion has certainly made Phelps the friend to have on FaceBook. He told Bob Costas on Saturday night that he has something like 7,600 new friend requests, according to the Baltimore Sun’s Medium Well sports blog.

His fan page has also exploded in recent days, with 859,387 FaceBookers having signed up at the time of this posting.

Given this excitement, it’s fair to say it may be difficult for Phelps to maintain much of a private life over the next few months – or even years. Check out ScientificAmerican.com’s coverage of security and privacy issues in our new In-Depth Report to see how your own privacy is being protected – and threatened.

You may also be wondering why Phelps is so good at swimming. Could it be those size 14 feet or his long torso and short arms? Or might it really just be hard training and a will to win?

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Is she? Could be. And more power to Ivy Bean, we say. More friends, too. She’s nearly got 5k as of 5PM EST. Much to do with the publicity the frisbee-wielding Olympian has received, we suspect. She was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition this Friday, followed by a spot in the Daily Mail, and subsequently, Silicon Alley Insider. This weekend the sporty and Web-enabled centenarian can check off Mashable, too.

This is light news at best, not like the technical heavies we trumpet most every week. But Ms. Bean’s 15 minutes have indeed arrived, as they say, and since she’s nabbing much props from the Facebook congnoscenti, we’ll go ahead and bow to the great dame as well. 

Not much in the way of deets about the networker. She’s 102 years young. She’s over in Bradford, England. She was given a Facebook group all her own, titled “Oldest Person on Facebook.” And, well, it seems she’s only looking to add to her friends list at the moment, it seems. Typical Facebooker, eh? Apparently that policy is working to her favor anyway.

 Really, though. Consider how you’d like your profile to show if/when you’ve reached 102. Peace and quiet, and some polite conversation with folks close by, right? Most definitely.

Anywho, for old time’s “Add-as-Friend” sake, we’d say be the kind lads and gals you are and give Englishwoman a click and a hello.

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When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to illustrate the impact of his social network, he tells a story about several young religious militants from Lebanon who changed their view of Western culture through Facebook friendships. The subtext to the tale is that free expression of ideas, enabled by the Web, bridges deep cultural divides. But we knew that: It’s one of the central concepts behind the Olympics, after all. What we didn’t know is that Facebook is in Lebanon.

In fact, Facebook is quickly expanding in many regions. The site is the top global social network, according to figures released by comScore (SCOR) on Aug. 12. Of Facebook’s 132 million users, nearly 63% are outside North America. The site, which had been translated into 20 languages including French, Spanish, and Mandarin, has recently added 69 more. “Now, through translations, we are seeing a lot of growth in international countries,” says Javier Olivan, international manager at Facebook in a recent interview.

Viral growth
Facebook isn’t the only social network focusing on international expansion. As American sites such as Facebook and MySpace, News Corp.’s (NWS) leading U.S. social network, saturate their home markets, they’re looking abroad to fuel the audience growth that has made them so attractive to advertisers, audiences, acquirers, and would-be investors. MySpace, for example, has expanded to more than 29 countries, including India and Korea, in the past few years,. (more…)

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Facebook has blocked links between its social networking site and malware-infested Web sites to where malicious hackers have been trying to lure Facebook members.

“We’ve identified and blocked the ability to link to the malicious websites from anywhere on Facebook. Less than .002 percent of people on Facebook have been affected, all of whom we notified and suggested steps to remove the malware,” wrote Max Kelly, Facebook’s head of security, in a blog post early Friday. (more…)

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A deal giving Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) a prominent role in powering Web searches on social networking site Facebook is part of a tapestry of smaller alliances, investments and tactics the software giant is pursuing to expand its online advertising businesses.Since it’s highly unlikely Microsoft will acquire Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) in order to reach significant scale in its Internet search activities, Microsoft is taking a piecemeal approach to improving its loss- making Online Services Business. It is focusing on improving its technology and boosting its audience share in myriad ways.

Few think there’s any short-term prospect the company will vault past Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc. (GOOG) in the search market race any time soon. But the Facebook deal will boost Microsoft’s audience and showcase its improving advertising search credentials, and both parties should generate additional revenue.

“This is a great deal for Microsoft,” said Shar VanBoskirk, principal analyst with tech research firm Forrester Research. “They have some really smart search technologies, but there just aren’t a lot of people using them.”

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said last week that it would soon provide Web search services on U.S. Facebook sites through its Live Search engine. Facebook is one of the world’s most popular social networking Web sites. Microsoft last year invested $240 million in a 5% ownership stake in Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook, whose site works by offering users free accounts where they can keep in touch with their friends through email, pictures, music and games.

Microsoft declined to provide specific information about how the search deal will work, but most analysts think that it’s likely Microsoft will place a search “toolbar” on Facebook, allowing users to search the wider Web from within their Facebook accounts.

Like most of the other smaller initiatives taking place to bolster Microsoft’s online business, the Facebook deal isn’t expected to shift the market-share landscape. Google in May took more than 68% of U.S. Internet searches, according to Hitwise. Searches, which account for roughly 40% of total Internet advertising, are the most profitable segment of the Internet economy. ComScore said that in June, Google took 63.7% of global searches, with Microsoft taking just 3.1%.

But Microsoft’s current approach seems designed to highlight the specialized and innovative nature of its search properties, which some analysts think are under-appreciated. Recently, Microsoft bought San Francisco-based Powerset Inc., a so-called semantic search specialist; acquired Seattle-based Farecast Inc., a travel search specialist; and announced such promotions as Cashback Search, which allows consumers to get money back on selected searches.  Continue reading the rest of this story here.

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The Republican National Committee has launched a fake Facebook page attacking Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, highlighting some of the more controversial “friends” in his “network.”

“Barackbook” includes info on Tony Rezko, former Weather Underground member William Ayers, Marilyn Katz, Nadhmi Auchi, and others.

Copying the format of Facebook, the page includes information along the lines of: “Alexi Giannoulias and Eric Holder have updated their profiles.”

And “Barack Obama is now friends with Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko.”

If you click on any one of Obama’s “friends” you get a traditional oppo dump, with information (of questionable relevance) such as: “Katz Led Young Protesters Outside The 1968 Democrat Convention Who Clashed With Police Officers During The Demonstrations. (Stephen Franklin, ‘Sides Reunite, But 28 Years Later, Few Lessons Learned,’ Chicago Tribune, 4/16/98).”

Under Obama’s picture today, parodying the “what are you doing” conceit of the real Facebook, it reads: “Barack is hoping to settle on an Iraq policy before November.”

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In this video interview, Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of technical operations at Facebook, talks with about managing Facebook’s hypergrowth. Heiliger is a rock star infrastructure geek. He was the CTO of Global Crossing at age 23, worked at Marc Andreessen’s Loudcloud and spent time as the head of Web engineering at Walmart.com.

During the interview, Heiliger said that Facebook has more than 10,000 servers and leverages mostly open-source software across a distributed architecture, with thousands of MySQL instances. “It’s almost a new challenge every day,” Heiliger said regarding the challenges of keeping up with the growth in users–about 250,000 new users per day. He said that Facebook is considering building its own data centers, but for now is renting.

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But that’s a hard number to justify given Facebook’s revenue projections and comparisons to other big networks, and a lot of people think it’s vastly overvalued at that price. And at least one stockholder is quietly looking to sell some stock at a value significantly lower than that $15 billion.

It’s probably more than one, actually. We’ve been chasing rumors (none confirmed) for months that some vested non-exec employees have been trying to sell common stock, that some early VCs are trying to move preferred stock, and even that founder Mark Zuckerberg explored selling some stock at a $6 billion valuation.

Now, though, we’ve got our hands on a smoking gun of sorts. Bill Dagley, the Managing Director at a firm that manages money for high net worth individuals called Private Wealth Partners in Larkspur, California, has been sending out feelers to venture capitalists and wealthy individuals who may be interested in buying stock from a Facebook shareholder at a value far less than $15 billion.

We’ve been forwarded one email conversation from a source, where Dagley asks if they’d be interested in “buying shares of Facebook from current holder?” Another person who was approached said the asking price was $3-$4 billion. A third source says the total amount of stock being sold is around $30 million.

The seller was never disclosed, but it’s likely a current or ex-Facebook exec who wasn’t required to sign special agreements with investors during the venture rounds. That likely means they can theoretically sell their stock once it’s vested and paid for.

Everyone we’ve talked to has turned down the offer, although it’s my guess that there are buyers at this price. Heck, I’m in for at least one share.

If you’re interested in Facebook at that price, give Dagley a call. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to hear from you.

Via: Washington Post

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It was sort of inevitable given Facebook’s monster growth over the last few years, but April 2008 was the milestone: Facebook officially caught up to MySpace in terms of unique monthly worldwide visitors, according to data released by Comscore and shown above. Both services are attracting around 115 million people to their respective sites each month.Most of Facebook’s user growth, however, has been in international markets - MySpace is still dominates Facebook in the U.S. market, with 72 million monthly uniques. Facebook has 36 million monthly uniques, up from 23 million a year ago.

Facebook added 75 million monthly uniques over the last twelve month, but just 13 million of those visitors are located in the U.S. MySpace added 5 million U.S. uniques during that period - at this rate it will take 4+ years for Facebook to catch up to MySpace in the U.S. market.

There’s a real question about how valuable all these international users are from an advertising standpoint.

Via: TechCrunch

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