German Secret Service Warns Against Fake Profiles On LinkedIn

The German secret service BfV warns against fake profiles on LinkedIn that would be used by Chinese intelligence services to gather information about politicians and policymakers. Over a period of nine months more than 10,000 Germans were approached via the fake profiles, according to the BfV.

The profiles occur as headhunters, consultants or scientists with the names "Rachel Li" and "Alex Li". They claim to have, among other things, vacancies at a Dutch HR company. After contact has been made, the fake profiles try to collect information about habits, hobbies and political interests. "Chinese intelligence services are active on networks such as LinkedIn and in this way try to gather information and find sources of information," said a spokesperson.

Many of the profiles are provided with photographs of attractive men and women. One of the photos would even be taken directly from an online fashion catalog, according to Reuters . The fake profiles have mainly provided for European diplomats and politicians. German citizens are called upon to report suspicious profiles and not to share valuable personal information via social media. "This is an extensive attempt to infiltrate certain parliaments, ministries and government agencies," says Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the BfV.

India Protects Online Banking And Social Media In Encryption Law

The Indian Government under pressure online banking, social media and online shopping a new encryption law excepted. Recently the Indian government published a draft version of the bill (pdf),where citizens and businesses to October 16 this year to respond.

The policy Indians required to store a decrypted version of encrypted data 90 days, and their visible for making intelligence services. There was a storm of criticism, because a large part of the internet presence of encryption use. For example, the popular chat app WhatsApp encrypts data, as well as banks for online banking. Therefore, there is now for this type of service made ​​an exception, reports the BBC.

The bill also proposes that service both within and outside India who use encryption must first sign an agreement with the Indian government before they are allowed to offer such services in India. In addition, the bill states that the Indian government will prescribe the allowable encryption algorithms and key lengths.

According Pranesh Prakash, director of the Center for Internet and Society in Bangalore, the proposal is a bad idea coming from people who do not understand encryption. He also finds it strange that the bill not "sensitive government" applies. "What the government should do is to establish minimum encryption standards for government use, but here the opposite happens," said Prakash across the India Times.

Researchers Develop Face In The Dark

Face recognition is increasingly used, biometric access control to the "tag" photos on social media, but the systems that are actually responsible for this work only during the day and with sufficient light. However, German scientists have now found a solution to face in the dark possible.

Saquib Sarfraz and Rainer Stiefelhagen of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have developed a system ( pdf ) developed whereby they analyze dozens of infrared images of a person's face and then compare dozens of images taken in daylight.Researchers feel that the differences in lighting one of the biggest problems that face is facing. Infrared has the advantage that it is insensitive to the present exposure.

In order to compare the images, the scientists have developed a program that uses a "deep neural network system," in order to mimic the operation of a human brain. Through this neural network were over 4500 images which were both made in infrared and daylight are compared within 35 milliseconds to find a match. However, the system also has its problems. As daylight influence can have the photo of someone's face, may infrared images by environmental influences also differ. If it's hot outside or someone have exercised the visions if this person is cool and relaxed.

In the comparison of more than 4500 pictures we worked with 82 people. In 80% of the cases, the match was between the picture in daylight and infrared image correctly. This however requires that there were available several pictures. In case there was only a picture in daylight available, the accuracy decreased to 55%. However, performance can be improved with a larger dataset and powerful network. The conclusion of the study the researchers argue that their approach provides a very practical solution for large-scale surveillance and military applications. They are namely governments, enforcement agencies and the military who may have these datasets and networks.

Research: 8% Instagram Accounts Is A Spambot

Almost one in twelve accounts on Instagram photo service is specially created to send only spam messages. It claims a group of Italian researchers, more than 10.2 million accounts were monitoring the website. In addition to analyzing the accounts of celebrities she also bought 20,000 fake accounts from ten different providers for an amount of one hundred dollars and kept in the hole for a month.

The study showed that 7.9% of Instagram accounts behaves like spambot. It also showed that nearly 30% of users are inactive and places less than one photo or video per month. In December last year decided to tackle spam bots Instagram, but the problem seems to be still present. "Despite the cleaning of last December and new" countermeasures "to stop this development, there is still a lack of transparency about internal data, there are few studies on the presence of spambots, especially on Instagram," the researchers said.

In their study called "Instagram spam bots and social media Popularity" they say that Instagram, now everyone on the platform to advertise, to take measures to create a level playing field for everyone and should show more respect for users of social media platforms. Instagram claims to have over 300 million users .

Belgian Privacy Commission Drags Facebook For Court

The Belgian Privacy Commission is dragging Facebook to court because of the following people who are not members of the social networking site. The case, which starts Thursday, is about the social plug-ins are available on many websites and allows visitors to share content on social media.

These buttons allow Facebook also visitors can follow which are not members of the social networking site. The problem came up during an earlier investigation of iMinds, VUB and KULeuven which had carried the Privacy Commission. It stated that Facebook members but non-members "secretly tracks" and its data processed.

"Even people who specifically indicate that they want to be followed are still followed", says Willem Debeuckelaere, chairman of the Belgian Privacy Commission. Across De Morgen let him know that the behavior of Facebook can not be tolerated. "We have a subpoena last Thursday show output to Facebook Belgium, Ireland and the United States."

On the basis of the previously held research presented the Privacy Commission on May 13 of this year, concerns and recommendations. It is mainly concerned that Facebook should be more transparent. Facebook did know, however, that it does not accept the Belgian law and the authority of the Belgian Privacy Commission, and that it all rests on a misunderstanding. "For us that was the signal to go to court," said Debeuckelaere. It is the first time that Facebook is towed by a European privacy commission to court for not respecting the privacy laws.

Research: IS Supporters Used 46,000 Twitter Accounts

Supporters of the terrorist organization IS Having September 2014 until the end of last year used an estimated 46,000 Twitter accounts. Researchers argue that JM Berger and Jonathon Morgan of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution .

The researchers collected data from about ( pdf ) 50,000 Twitter accounts, of which 30,000 IS supporters would be. Among other things, looked at the location, language settings and the number of followers of these accounts. It was found that IS adherents location data off more often than normal Twitter users, but not much more. Eventually, the researchers discovered that a small group of "hyperactive users" particularly active.

It is about 500 to 2,000 accounts that send large amounts of tweets. It also showed that the IS supportive Twitter accounts had an average of 1,000 followers, much more than normal Twitter users are. During the study period, at least 1,000 accounts closed by Twitter, but may run the actual number in the thousands. It was in particular accounts sent out many tweets and had many followers.

"The suspension of accounts have appreciable effects in limiting the size and scope of the IS activities on social media. At this time, not the current implementation ensures that these activities are eliminated and can not be expected," Morgan said and Berger. Based on their research, the researchers must cooperate social media companies and the US government to tackle extremism on social media.

Facebook Launches Platform For Sharing Of Cyber Threats

Facebook has a platform launched by which Internet companies can share information about cyberthreats with other parties. The platform called Threat Exchange and is built on the existing Facebook infrastructure. Through various APIs (application programming interface) participants available threat information retrieval and delivery.

It is, for example, issues such as domains and malware instances. However, it is also possible for participants to only share certain information with other companies who are experiencing the same problems or attacks. Also you can choose to share the information only within a particular group or multiple groups. Meanwhile would Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter and Yahoo already participate in the project and bitly and Dropbox will soon join.