MEPIS Community Forum

yes.

any web based app that is not specific to a particular browser, like activex specific apps are to IE, is vulnerable. especially when it comes to account hijacking.

some threats to web based apps are dependent upon OS, but usually it's because of some quirk in the browser for that OS.

most addons that i know of are browser version specific, and OS agnostic, so a backdoor in an addon would be functional for any OS.

most of the popular addons have been around long enough, and enough eyes have seen the code to flesh out potential issues, but you still need to be wary. i minimize my addon usage. for those that i do use, i use only popular addons that have been through several versions.

I probably didn't say this correctly. The malware addon is "disguised" as a link to some kind of enticement, like a free offer of a latte at Mcdonalds. So if the user clicks on it, it installs the addon to the browser. It is not a matter of a user purposefully installing an add on that is faulty.

The security at Facebook has been compromised. Do not use Facebook for anything like a 'special offer'.

Facebook should be able to take care of this. Keep your eyes on developments and don't click on things like that until they do.

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Finally permanently removed my Facebook account.

Facebook is wrong on so many different levels. The threat of malware is ever-present. But beyond that, Mark Zuckerberg has stated publicly that he has no respect for anyone's privacy, which makes me wonder what he is doing with all that information at his disposal. Facebook continually promises to tighten security and then reneges on its promises. http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16135359

Then there are the child predators and other criminals who mine interesting tidbits of information for their nefarious purposes, and countless people whose lives have been ruined because of private information leaked through Facebook to spouses, employers, etc.

Most of my friends and family, including my children, nieces, and nephews, use Facebook to communicate with each other. I tell them to use the telephone if they want to share something with me.

@joany...I have to agree with you. I have a facebook account but I limit myself only to linking youtube videos or my opinions but I never send messages of any importance to anyone. And if I want to be honest with myself I should keep my opinions I to myself if I don't want them floating around in Facebook cyberspace. Do I see a certain usefulness in Facebook or Twitter...well, in light of the Arab Spring or the OccupyWallstreet, yes I do but the possibility to misuse it on a commercial or government level is really just too great to ignore.

facebook does now. they are now being monitored for privacy/security issues for the next 20 years... they have no choice but to improve

I'm not afraid of making my opinions known -- they aren't all that radical anyway. But what I am afraid of is someone posting information about me on their Facebook page, or wall, or whatever they call it. Although I can control my urges to let everything hang out in public, a lot of people I know can't, and that scares me.

this basic premise should always apply to what is done online (though the more reactive people ignore this too often)... don't post, do anything online that you're not willing to have show up on the frontpage of the NY Times or in your grandmother's mailbox...

joany, you know this already... no amount of keeping yourself sequestered online is going to protect you from people who have no morales or scruples, and whose only joy in life is making others miserable.

from a online reputation perspective, the other school of thought is that you should be online and take proactive steps to post positive things about yourself. the thought being that if someone does try and slander you online it's effect will be limited... not sure that i entirely adhere to this thought for the "normal" user, but certainly for people who require a presence online it goes a long way to "diluting" the effects of negative attacks.

As a somewhat grizzled member of the human race I've noted that more than just a few activities once opened to the public at large simply deteriorated into an unusable mess. That'd be the activity and the public. "Social Networking" seems like yet another to me and the consequences were obviously inevitable.. Facebook and it's founder would not be missed in the slightest in this neck of the woods.