A Facebook executive has confirmed that the recent downtime issues and Denial of Service Attacks on Facebook, LiveJournal, YouTube, Google and Blogger were all part of the Russia-Georgia crisis and were targeted at silencing one man from reporting.
A blogger, based in the Republic of Georgia, with username Cyxymu, was the victim of a simultaneous attack on the bloggers personal Social Networking accounts, according to Facebook’s chief security officer Max Kelly. The claim reinforces reports that social networking sites are being dragged into the Georgia-Russia crisis for allowing users to report on the issues.

Max Kelly told CNet. “It was a simultaneous attack across a number of properties targeting him to keep his voice from being heard. We’re actively investigating the source of the attacks and we hope to be able to find out the individuals involved in the back end and to take action against them if we can.”

Google, whose infrastructure protect its sites from being taken down by the recent activity are quoted as saying:
“We are aware that a handful of non-Google sites were impacted by a DOS attack this morning, and are in contact with some affected companies to help investigate this attack. Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services.”

The internet is a portal for free speech and allows bloggers to share their opinions without restriction of content. Political propaganda and crisis information is freely available to view and publish on the internet without political censorship, but this obviously poses a threat to political activists. Are we seeing the start of a new wave of Cyber Warfare and will social networking sites need to offer more hardened security to protect against such attacks?

Article by Creative SEO – Search engine consultant

Well this is turning out to be a very strange day, Twitter is currently down as a result of a denial of service attack. The team are currently fighting the issue as we speak. So there are millions of bored Twitter users with nothing better to do, where do they all go, Facebook!!

One problem with this tactic, Facebook is grinding under the pressure and yes you guessed it, its up and down more times than a yoyo at a pro yoyo convention. Facebook is struggling under the pressure and we have been receiving reports of error pages and very slow loading content.

Wow it goes to show how amazing powerful Twitter is!! We will keep you informed as we find out more.

The much anticipated new Edinburgh trams project is to use online social networking services to improve its communication with the public, providing regular ongoing development updates.

The £545 million works have received much press and bosses wanted to find a way of communicating more effectively with the public.

“Followers” of the trams’ Twitter feed will be able to see brief news flashes as and when they are released, and an in-depth Facebook page is being developed.

Mandy Haeburn-Little, TIE’s director of customer services and communications, said: “It is vital that we engage with members of the public during the construction of the Edinburgh Tram system.”

It’s another example of the power of social networking and its ability to communicate effectively with a target audience.

Article by Creative SEO – Search Engine Marketing

A recent report released by Sophos Inc details the use of viruses to hijack or mimic user accounts on social networks. It seems as though the virus will pretend to be a contact or friend on your social networking account. And send you direct messages asking you to visit websites or click on links. The messages are taking you to locations where your computer could potentially be infected.

“What’s needed is a period of introspection — for the big Web 2.0 companies to examine their systems and determine how, now that they have gathered a huge number of members, they are going to protect them from virus writers, identity thieves, spammers and scammers,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, in a statement. “The honeymoon period of these sites is over, and personally identifiable information is at risk as a result of constant attacks that the Web sites are simply not mature enough to protect against.”

This new form of virus is growing in popularity, so if it looks strange, don’t click on it, report it.

Article by Creative SEO UK

In under a year Facebook have managed to double there Worldwide users to an astonishing 250 million. This really is an impressive number and is a testament to the service Facebook are offering there users. With this volume of users why would Facebook worry about Twitter, how could they even be a threat? Facebook understand that in order to maintain online growth and keep their existing customers entertained and happy, they will need to continue to develop their platform and experiment with new technologies. Facebook applications are a cleaver way of allowing users to change and update their Facebook accounts which maintains there interest in the product. Facebooks success can somewhat be contributed to the community integration of the product and the multiple ways Facebook has found to engage the users interest. MySpace is a good example of a social network that just seemed to stop developing and lost the interest of its users. Let’s hope Facebook learns from these mistakes and maintains its growth.