http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20120409_3435.php By Aliya Sternstein Nextgov 04/09/2012 Facebook frequently takes flack for privacy invasions, but the next controversial byproduct of the social network may be cyber espionage, according to security researchers. Status updates on Facebook posted by friends and family of government officials or the officials' own unencrypted Facebook activities can be used to gather intelligence such as U.S. troop movements, says Rob Rachwald, security strategy director for cybersecurity firm Imperva. While data brokers profit by collating social communications for advertisers, spies and hackers on government payrolls can profit by parsing the same information. And there's a lot of it. In 2011, Max Schrems, a Vienna law student interested in the dossier Facebook's computers kept on him, filed a request for his social media records under European data protection regulations. He claims to have received a 1,222-page file of deleted messages, removed "friends" and other current and former data. An Imperva report slated for release on Tuesday explains hackers can analyze these records, including connections between "friended" business partners and colleagues, to map out the hierarchy of different organizations. "The organizational structure can be used for corporate espionage, foreign-government and even military intelligence," states a draft reviewed by Nextgov. [...] _______________________________________________ LayerOne Security Conference May 26-27, Clarion Hotel, Anaheim, CA http://www.layerone.orgReceived on Mon Apr 09 2012 - 22:18:39 PDT
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