My Space Is Not Good AnyMore!

[abadani69]

Man ham ba niloo joon movafegham. man ham raftam join shodam vali 1 saat baad canclesh kardam choon hamash bache bazi e onja

[golgol85]

na ke myspace bache bazi nist?

[Rasputin]

Aggressive MySpace Worm Attacks via QuickTime

The social networking site MySpace.com is under what one computer security analyst calls an "amazingly virulent" attack caused by a worm that steals log-in credentials and spreads spam that promotes adware sites.

The worm is infecting MySpace profiles with such efficiency that an informal scan of 150 found that close to a third were infected, said Christopher Boyd, security research manager at FaceTime Communications.

MySpace, owned by News Corp., is estimated to have at least 73 million registered users.

The worm works by using a cross-scripting weakness found around two weeks ago in MySpace and a feature within Apple's QuickTime multimedia player.

How Worm Spreads
The exploit starts with a user who visits a MySpace profile infected with an embedded QuickTime movie. The movie loads JavaScript code that overlays a row of menu options on a MySpace profile with a bogus menu.

A QuickTime function, called the HREF track, can direct the player to use JavaScript commands to load Web pages into a browser frame or window.

The JavaScript feature in QuickTime has legitimate uses, "but there are a lot of legitimate uses for technology that can be misused," said Ross Paul, senior product manager with Websense.

If an option in the bogus menu is clicked, the user is directed to a fake log-in page hosted on another server where the person's log-in details are captured. This phishing-style maneuver is similar to another recent attack aimed at MySpace users.

Websense has posted a screenshot of the fake log-in page.

Exploits MySpace Features
MySpace's "seemingly random tendency" to expire user sessions or log out users makes it less noticeable to victims that an attack is under way, according to a November 16 advisory by the Computer Academic Underground.

Additionally, the worm places an embedded QuickTime movie on the user's profile, which will then repeat the infection process for anyone who visits the profile.

The worm has another malicious function. Once a profile is infected, the worm sends spam to other people in the user's contact list.

Those spam messages contain a file that appears to be a movie but instead is a link to a pornographic site that also hosts adware from Zango, Boyd said. Zango, formerly 180 Solutions, settled in November with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for $3 million because of complaints it didn't properly ask the consent of users before its adware was installed.

Worm Ducks Detection
Boyd said he's heard anecdotal stories of users removing the worm's JavaScript manually from their profile, but the worm reappears after some time if one of their friend's profiles is infected. Several variants of the worm have also appeared, he said.

While some of the Web sites hosting the malicious QuickTime movie have been taken down, others have appeared, Boyd said.

The Firefox 2.0 browser was flagging some of the bogus log-in sites as phishing sites, Boyd said. However, phishing sites can be active for several hours before they are flagged, he said.

MySpace officials in London couldn't immediately comment Monday morning.

[Rasputin]

Stepping up efforts to keep sex offenders off MySpace.com, the popular social networking Web site has partnered with an online identity and background verification company to build a national sex offender database in the United States, and will dedicate staff to checking the database against MySpace profiles.

Sentinel Tech Holding will build a searchable database containing information on sex offenders in the United States who are registered with various federal and state law enforcement agencies. The database will be updated frequently and will include details such as name, age, physical appearance, and distinguishing features (tattoos and scars, for example).

MySpace staff will constantly monitor the site for profiles submitted by sex offenders who are on the list. Staffers will remove any matching profiles that they find.

More Restrictions Wanted
MySpace has been lobbying for new legislation to help it take the program a step further. The company wants a law that requires sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses in a national sex-offender database. The law would stipulate that using an unregistered e-mail address constitutes a parole or probation violation, forcing offenders back to jail. If such a law were passed, MySpace would find it easier to identify sex offenders who have profiles on its site, the company said.

Some observers have criticized MySpace for permitting profiles by registered sex offenders. Earlier this year, journalists around the country began cross-checking sex-offender databases against MySpace profiles, finding matches, and publicizing their results. MySpace responded by hiring a chief security officer to oversee safety and law enforcement affairs and by introducing an advertising campaign to promote online safety.

MySpace still faces some thorny issues. For example, most sex offenders aren't legally prohibited from creating a MySpace page, so it's unclear whether MySpace will trigger a backlash over its policy of removing certain profiles.

[Rasputin]

MySpace.com has filed a lawsuit against the self-proclaimed "Spam King" for allegedly blasting the portal with spam through the use of compromised user accounts.

MySpace also seeks a permanent injunction to bar Scott Richter, who has fought with Microsoft and the state of New York over spam, and his affiliates from using the popular social networking site, according to a MySpace announcement. Richter runs Optinrealbig.com, an e-mail marketing company based in Westminster, Colorado.

Mass Mail Alleged
MySpace, which is owned by News Corp., also accused Richter of running afoul of the federal CAN-SPAM Act and California's antispam law. The suit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

MySpace users can send "bulletins"--a few lines of text--to blocks of users who are in their circle of friends. That distribution power has made MySpace a frequent target for spammers, who can reach up to thousands of users if they have the log-in and password for a single account.

The lawsuit accuses Richter and his associates of sending millions of bulletins from different user accounts without their knowledge between July and December 2006. The bulletins advertised ring tones and polo shirts, among other products, MySpace said.

The suit alleges Richter obtained a list of compromised accounts or used a technique known as "phishing," when a hacker constructs a fraudulent page that harvests log-ins and passwords.

Previous Spam Suits
Richter has had other legal problems. He settled with Microsoft in August 2005 for $7 million, the largest settlement Microsoft obtained in more than 100 spam-related suits active at that time.

In 2004, Richter's company settled with the state of New York for $40,000 plus $10,000 in investigative costs, over spam. He also agreed to comply with the CAN-SPAM act and use correct information when registering domain names.

[golesang]

I'd much rather write e-mails or make phone calls than do all the myspace related stuff. Va albatte tapesh.com va siteye digar mesle an behtarin astand!

[Rasputin]

MySpace Wouldn't Have Survived Without News Corp.

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- If MySpace hadn't been sold to News Corp., it wouldn't exist today.
The PaidContent.org EconSM conference last week focused on the deals and business of social media.

That was the verdict from Richard Rosenblatt, chairman-CEO of Demand Media and former CEO of Intermix, whose assets included MySpace, at last week's PaidContent.org EconSM conference in Beverly Hills.

Not too low
The conference focused on the deals and business of social media, and one topic hanging over the event was consolidation in the space, which still is dominated by venture-funded startups, not major media players. Mr. Rosenblatt addressed the growing valuation of companies in the area and said he did not believe he sold too low when it was sold to News Corp. in 2005 for $580 million.

"MySpace was in an interesting stage of its development [when News Corp. acquired it]," he said. "It had a different type of capital structure and we weren't able to make the type of investments for the infrastructure. Ultimately if we hadn't sold to News Corp., MySpace wouldn't be around today."

He said he believes social networks such as Facebook and Bebo could survive today on their own, thanks to the way advertisers have embraced the space. It's just a question of whether they can survive "the ups and downs," he said.

How much would you overpay?
Rafat Ali, editor and publisher of PaidContent.org, put former MTV Networks Global Digital Officer Jason Hirschhorn (now president of entertainment at Sling Media) on the spot when he asked if he would have bought Facebook or Bebo if he were at MTV now.

"The future of media's not about telling but creating a platform for your audience to tell," Mr. Hirschhorn said. "What it comes down to is about price. Would I overpay for it? Yes. How much would I overpay for it? I don't know."

There was a lot of talk about the challenges and opportunities around integrating startups into major media companies and the need to preserve startup DNA. The hands-off approach News Corp. took to the MySpace integration was held up as the gold standard.

'Nascar-ification'
"I'm sure Chad Hurley is the defender of the community inside YouTube saying, 'Please don't slap the Nascar-ification of ads in front of my users' eyes or they're going to go somewhere else,'" said Quincy Smith, a former Allen & Co. executive who now leads interactive group at CBS. He said a challenge for him is convincing young companies that CBS values their entrepreneurial nature and won't stifle it. CBS has had four investments since November and "we should have another two on the way," Mr. Smith said, emphasizing his desire to purchase something with big online reach.

"Look for CBS to get in the game, like Fox, iVillage," he said. "You should expect us to make a statement there and you should expect that sooner rather than later." He also suggested it would be natural to see CBS invest in new content companies.

Of course, making major dollars in social media has not been slow to come, in big part, said those in attendance, because it's still so new there's no recipe for advertising and few metrics to support the investment.

Monetizing attention
Social media, said Tariq Krim, co-CEO and founder of NetVibes, the popular French blogging platform, is about monetizing attention. "You're addressing a group of people connecting through a passion," he said. Added Bebo co-founder and CEO Michael Birch: "Engagement is still a tougher sell than just focusing on display advertising."

Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Publicis Groupe's Denuo, said the big mistake is using the word "advertising" in this space. The single most important lesson in marketing is to understand your consumer. "Social media is the best way to think about marketing, but it's not necessarily about advertising," he said. He suggested marketers can provide editing and recalled a conversation he had with humorist ZeFrank, who said, "We're living in a world of crapacopia and brands can be very good about eliminating crapacopia."

Amid heady valuations for social-media companies, Mr. Toboccowala offered a reality check: "One single show in prime time has more impressions than the top six shows on YouTube. ... If we go tell clients something that's not mathematically true, they'll say you're a bunch of idiots and we'll have 2000 and 2001 again." Search has been such a booming online business because it scales, he pointed out, and added: "The rest is really hard work."

[Rasputin]

MySpace Seeks Help to Release Predators E-Mail

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp.'s MySpace filed a request on Monday in a Pennsylvania state court to seek guidance on how it can legally provide local authorities with the private e-mails of convicted sex offenders who had lurked on its service.

A federal law prevents Internet service providers such as MySpace from turning over a user's electronic communications without a search warrant. But obtaining search warrants is difficult for offenders not currently under investigation.

The request comes after some U.S. state authorities, including Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, began seeking more information on convicted sex predators who they worry could be using MySpace to find child victims.

"We got the court order from Pennsylvania Attorney General Corbett, which we can't comply with," MySpace general counsel Mike Angus said in a phone interview.

The resolution is seen as a test case for how local U.S. authorities and MySpace can cooperate in sharing information without violating federal law.

MySpace and a coalition of U.S. attorneys general reached an accord in May on how the Web service could turn over information on convicted offenders who register on its site. MySpace said it has deleted their profiles from its service, but retained their information in its database.

MySpace has provided the profiles of offenders, such as names and addresses, a process made easier after it contracted background verification company Sentinel Tech Holdings last year to develop a national database of registered sex offenders.

Before the database's launch in early May, sex offender data was collected on a local level, making nationwide searches difficult.

However, MySpace has not provided private e-mail correspondence, citing legal restrictions.

The service, popular among teens as young as 14 years old and young adults who share their interest in music and new bands, has been the target of adult predators over the past year.

U.S. state authorities began investigating the service after several teens fell prey to adult predators posing as minors. The families of several teenage girls, who said they were sexually assaulted by MySpace members, sued the service in January for failing to do enough to protect its members.

MySpace said it is restricted from complying with the Pennsylvania AG's demands as the federal U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit prevents the disclosure of electronic correspondences before obtaining a search warrant.

"The 9th Circuit has determined that ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986) requires a search warrant to produce private messages and unfortunately, in some cases, this is proving difficult," Angus said. "Absent an existing investigation, having the name of a registered sex offender isn't enough to produce a search warrant."

It is now up to the state courts to decide whether disclosing the private communications of its members is legally sound.

"We want Attorney General Corbett to get this information to provide them with whatever they need to use in their investigation," Angus said. But, "We don't want the information to become tainted."

Angus said MySpace has provided e-mail correspondence of sex offenders to the Pennsylvania court, leaving it up to the court to release the information at its discretion.

MySpace filed the request in the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania on Monday morning.

[Rasputin]

MySpace Deletes Nebraska Sex Offenders' Profiles

The social networking site MySpace deleted 146 profiles belonging to about 112 registered Nebraska sex offenders, said Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning Friday.

The company removed the profiles during the first half of 2008.

MySpace gets sex offender registry lists from states and compares those lists to users on its site.

This is the second time MySpace removed profiles of Nebraska sex offenders. The company deleted 247 profiles in 2007.