NewsLetter 5307 Carroll Lake Rd., Commerce MI 48382 Phone: 248-360-8967 Facebook privacy notice hoax. Have you posted the notice to your Facebook timeline to proclaim your copyright ownership of all content? Have you seen others from your social network posting such a notice? If you haven’t already, don’t bother. It’s a hoax. It’s not even a new hoax. It’s a resurgence of an old hoax that many users fell for earlier this year when Facebook became a publicly-traded company. The previous hoax implied that the change from a private company to a public one somehow changed the rules of the privacy agreement and put your posts and photos at risk unless you posted a copy and paste of a disclaimer establishing your copyright ownership. You can't change the Facebook legal terms by posting on your timeline. The new one reads: “In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, paintings, writing, publications, photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berne Convention).” It goes on to claim that written consent is required for commercial use of any of the listed content, and directs other Facebook users to follow suit and post the same notice on their own timeline to protect content from copyright violations. It’s all false. Robert Scoble, a social media icon, bluntly expressed his thoughts about the hoax to his 434,000 subscribers. “If you are posting about copyright on Facebook and you haven't done your research you are an idiot.” Scoble directs people to do a little homework before jumping on the meme bandwagon, and points people to a Snopes post about the Facebook privacy hoax. Snopes is a good place to start before you repost, forward, or copy and paste anything on the Internet. Snopes.com has a pretty good breakdown of the origins and realities of the hoax. In a nutshell, when you join Facebook and set up an account, you are required to indicate acceptance of the established Facebook terms and policies, including the privacy policy. Nobody is forcing you to have a Facebook account, and you are welcome to reject the agreement and refuse to use Facebook, but if you’re using Facebook then you’ve already agreed to abide by the legal terms laid out by Facebook. As Snopes explains, you are not in a position to unilaterally alter the terms of the agreement. Snopes also points out that you can not legally limit or restrict the rights of any other entity that isn’t a party to the agreement between you and Facebook just by posting some text on your timeline. December 2012 : Page 1 NewsLetter 5307 Carroll Lake Rd., Commerce MI 48382 Phone: 248-360-8967 Facebook gives you the tools to protect your own privacy. Facebook privacy is a frequent source of debate and controversy, and Facebook isn’t always the best steward of privacy rights. However, Facebook does provide a diverse set of privacy controls, and enables users to choose where and how most status updates, photos, and other Facebook posts are shared. Before you complain about privacy—or the lack thereof—on the Facebook social network, make sure you at least take the time to explore the security controls available to you. And, before you copy and paste, or forward anything—ever—follow Scoble’s advice and do a little homework first. Gleaned from PCWorld.com Google Adds indoor maps Google updated its Maps service for desktop browsers adding floor plans for over 10,000 indoor locations, just in time for Black Friday deal hunters and directionally challenged holiday travelers. The indoor floor plans were available only on Google Maps for Android, but now you can now check indoor maps of airports, shopping malls, conference centers, casinos, train stations and museums from any Web browser. [See Related: Mobile maps showdown] Google’s list of indoor maps - available in eight countries around the world - only mentions some of the 10,000 locations with floor plans. More locations are added every day, says Google. To help fuel mapping of interiors Google now offers a tool for uploading floor plans to Google. To explore indoor plans on Google Maps, search for the location you want to view and then zoom in. If floor plans exist it will render. This is particularly useful for shopping malls when you want to see where a certain store or the allimportant restrooms are located, or finding departure gates at airports. Desktop versions of indoor maps are not as full-featured as the mobile counterparts. In your browser you can only get the plans for the main floor of buildings, while the Android mobile version Google Maps allows you to view additional level plans as well. This will depend from building to building. It’s no surprising that Google is keeping the more advanced features of indoor maps on mobile. After all, chances are that’s the device you will be using when you are going through an airport, rather than a laptop. But the weakness of this solution is that GPS on smartphones is not accurate and often unavailable when indoors, making navigating indoor maps unpractical from your phone. Now with access available via your desktop browser you can view a mall or airport terminal ahead of time. It’s unclear whether the indoor maps feature will make it into the Google Maps app reportedly being prepared for iPhones, as Google might want to keep certain features exclusive to its platform in order to sway users. Gleaned from PCWorld.com September 2012 : Page 2 NewsLetter 5307 Carroll Lake Rd., Commerce MI 48382 Phone: 248-360-8967 IRS blamed in massive South Carolina data breach South Carolina's governor faulted an outdated Internal Revenue Service standard as a contributing factor to a massive data breach that exposed Social Security numbers of 3.8 million taxpayers plus credit card and bank account data. Gov. Nikki Haley's remarks on Tuesday came after a report into the breach revealed that 74.7 GB was stolen from computers belonging to South Carolina's Department of Revenue (DOR) after an employee fell victim to a phishing email. People who filed tax returns electronically from 1998 on were affected, although most of the data appears to be after 2002, Haley said during a news conference. South Carolina is compliant with IRS rules, but the IRS does not require SSNs to be encrypted, she said. The state will now encrypt SSNs and is in the process of revamping its tax systems with stronger security controls. She said she has sent a letter to IRS to encourage the agency to update its standards to mandate encryption of SSNs. The lack of encryption and strong user access controls plus dated 1970s-era equipment made DOR systems ripe for an attack, she said. "This is a new era in time where you can't work with 1970 equipment," Haley said. "You can't go with compliance standards of the federal government." The report, written by the security company Mandiant, found that an employee's computer became infected with malware after the user opened a phishing email. The hacker captured the person's username and password, which allowed access to the agency's Citrix remote access service. From there, the hacker installed various tools that captured user account passwords on six servers. The hacker eventually gained access to three dozen other systems. Mandiant wrote that the hacker used at least 33 unique utilities and malware, including password dumping tools, administrative utilities, batch scripts and generic database command utilities. The hacker used a utility called 7-Zip to compress information, creating 15 encrypted archived files that, if uncompressed, contained 74.7 GB of data. The data was moved to another server within DOR before it was eventually moved to another system on the Internet, the report said. The 23 stolen database files contained a mix of encrypted and unencrypted data, the report said. The hacker appears to have only obtained an encrypted key for the encrypted data, which could not be accessed. But there was plenty of other plain-text data. The data included SSNs for 3.8 million tax filers and information on 1.9 million dependants, Haley said. InforSeptember 2012 : Page 3 NewsLetter 5307 Carroll Lake Rd., Commerce MI 48382 Phone: 248-360-8967 mation belonging to 699,900 businesses was compromised, along with 3.3 million bank accounts and 5,000 credit card numbers, she said. South Carolina has identified all of the victims, who will be notified by letter. The state is also working with Experian, which is monitoring credit information for victims. As a result of the breach, DOR Director Jim Etter will resign effective Dec. 31. He will be replaced by Bill Blume, who is currently executive director of South Carolina's Public Employee Benefit Authority, Haley said. Gleaned from PCWorld.com September 2012 : Page 4 NewsLetter 5307 Carroll Lake Rd., Commerce MI 48382 Phone: 248-360-8967 This Months Quote: An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan Techie Term: Rant-and-rave To speak on and on about something you feel passionate for. Users often rant-and-rave about particular topics in the newsgroups. To "rant" implies negative feelings about something, and to "rave" implies admiration for something. Fun Facts about New Years Most New Year's Eve fun facts also involve New Year's Day and traditions that occur close to midnight.      The Catholic Church denounced any New Year's celebrations as paganism. Ironically, as Christianity rolled through the world, the Catholic community devised other types of celebrations for the "Feast of Christ's Circumcision," which is observed the same as New Year's Eve and Day. It is often thought that the first visitors you see after ringing in the New Year would bring you good or bad luck, depending on who you keep as friends and enemies. That's why most people celebrating on New Year's Eve often do so with friends and family. If the first person to visit you was a tall and dark-haired man, this was especially lucky. Items or food that is ring-shaped is also good luck. This symbolizes "coming full circle", which is what one year does. Some cultures eat ring-like food through the evening and through the night to ensure that good luck will be bestowed upon everyone who eats. The Dutch often eat doughnuts. Black-eyed peas (usually with ham) are often consumed in certain parts of the United States. These are thought to bring good fortune in cultures around the world, not just in the U.S. Other foods that are eaten on New Year's Eve are cabbage because the leaves represent prosperity. Ham (or a hog) also symbolizes prosperity. In Asian cultures, rice is a hearty and lucky staple that is eaten around midnight to signify the coming year of fortune. Auld Lang Syne is sung at midnight to toast in the New Year. The song was composed by Robert Burns sometimes in the 1700's. The term means "old long ago" or "the good old days." Stats of the first New York ball: 700 pounds; 5 feet in diameter. The ball was made from wood and iron. The modern ball that is dropped is made from Waterford Crystal and weights over 1,000 pounds. There are over 9,000 LED lights, but uses hardly any energy. The ball begins to drop at 11:59 and completes the journey exactly at midnight to ring in the New Year. The ball was not lowered in 1942 and 1943 due to wartime restrictions. On New Year's Eve, about 75% of American Parties are with 20 people or less. September 2012 : Page 5 NewsLetter 5307 Carroll Lake Rd., Commerce MI 48382 Phone: 248-360-8967 Wishing you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Blessed New Year Larry, Mary, Tom, Cathy, Jim, Dana, Debbie, Matt, and Dan These documents are provided for informational purposes only. The information contained in this document represents the current view of VHC Enterprises DBA Larry The Computer Guy on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because VHC Enterprises must respond to changes in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of VHC Enterprises and cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT. This newsletter and website may contain links to other websites with whom we may or may not have a business relationship. VHC Enterprises DBA Larry The Computer Guy does not review or screen these sites, and we are not responsible or liable for their privacy or data security practices, or the content of these sites. 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To Subscribe or unsubscribe go to www.larrycomputerguy.com and click on the mailing list link or cut and past the following link into your browser: http://www.larrycomputerguy.com/subscribe.htm September 2012 : Page 6