Pro-Tibet Facebook Group Hacked!!!

A NY/DC based Pro-Tibet organization, “Students for a Free Tibet” had their Facebook group hacked as of last summer. I was originally informed of this by colleagues from NY back in August but the details were vague. Supposedly, it used to be an open group meaning anyone could join but now you have to get pre-approved. Got some screenshots of the group pages from a few of my contacts to give you an idea of what’s happening there.

Talk about a complete roundabout. Funny that just like Tibet, this group has been blocked from outsiders and set under “martial law” or whatever that means. At least they’re not shooting the members who leave the group … or I hope so.

I also found an interesting pattern against Tibet advocates. An article from March 2008 stated that there many email addresses belonging to those supportive of the Tibetan cause had been targeted numerous times with keyloggers (software designed to record keyboard strokes and transmit to the hacker) and trojans from fake email addresses and through deceiving pro-Tibet textual content.

Another article traced the emails and came with unsurprising results (hint: IP source was pinpointed to Beijing). The article also states that similar treatment has been dished out to Uygurs and Falun Gong members. Gee. I wonder what kind of person would do such a thing.

Along with the malware trojan distribution to Tibet sympathizers, even websites are being defaced. An expert chimed in – “The resurging trend of individual cyber-attacks, or at least based on the accusations from Western governments, is largely carried out by a new group or new generation of youngsters, who view the CPC government as too weak and too soft toward foreign pressure or insults, and take justice in their own hands.”

On a different note, a pro-Israel group decided to take matters into their own hands after Facebook failed to take action against a hate group listed on the popular social networking site. “Israel is not a country! Delist it from Facebook as a country” remained on Facebook despite thousands of complaints from all around the world. The Jewish Internet Defense Force had no choice but to hack the group and take it down.

Unlike the JIDF case, the “Students for a Free Tibet” peace group was hacked by people supporting oppression and violence. There are rumors that one of the members is a white supremacist and found an ally in China’s tyranny against the peaceful Tibetans.

The names of the hackers of the “Students for a Free Tibet” Facebook group shown on the image to the left. Motives unknown. Religious fanatics? Muslims? Christians? Right-wing neo-Nazis? Al-Qaida? Chinese spies?

I’ve received notes that at least one person in the admin group is a non-entity user essentially a fake user controlled by someone else. His profile has since been set to “private.”

Regardless of whoever they be, here’s to hoping these clowns come to their senses and stop supporting a Communist/Totalitarian regime. Otherwise, they should just pack up their bags and move to friendly Beijing.

…

A message to Facebook administrators and users:

When they came for the gypsies, I did not speak, for I am not a gypsy.

When they came for the Jews, I did not speak, because I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for the Catholics, I did not speak, for I am not a Catholic.

When they came for me, there was no one left to speak.

Adobe “Photoshop Express” is PHREE!

Yessss. The rumors circulating around last year about Adobe working on a web-based free Photoshop tool has finally been revealed as “Photoshop Express Beta.” Despite the awesomeness of Adobe PS, a large number of users barely ever used the layering and other PS components to justify the $700 or more price tag of the software suite. So Adobe got smart and realized they needed to make something that was easy to use and in a neat package to create awareness of their brand and public perception on the company’s products.

And just so you know, PS Express will only do basic photo editing and none of that fancy schmancy layering and text editing etc. Mamas and papas with pictures they would like to edit on a very user-friendly application need look no further than APSE (Adobe Photoshop Express) and they need to sign up with an account by clicking here.

Everything else is so easy even a caveman could do it.
(Umm remember to “upload” your picture before you decide to edit it.) 😉

A Photoshop that can run on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux all made possible through the power of the interweb. So yep. Photoshop is finally playing with the big boys on the web-based virtual labs application field. As Tom Friedman’s “10 Flatteners” have paved the way for the completion of the 3rd era in convergence, the web-based activities are leading the way into uncharted territory. With the intertwining of all electronic resources and data of the world, Adobe’s done the right thing by teaming up with online community powerhouses like Facebook, MySpace, and Picasa to create a smooth experience for the end user.

I personally thought this was a long overdue project from the company. They’re lagging behind in so many departments (example: Flash Lite ~ mobile devices) but it helps to not have many competitors in the field. Maybe this will help quell the rampant piracy of their expensive software. Great marketing. Great product placement. And a mighty A+ for their efforts!

The Ninja gives it his seal of approval and hopes Adobe doesn’t get greedy and decide to charge users for this awesome service. But for now, try it out and be a happy bunny.

New Facebook Privacy Stuff

Facebook finally updated their “privacy” settings amidst all the complaints from current/past users of this highly popular online community site. Now when you log in to your Facebook account, click on “privacy” which is located at the top-right corner next to the “logout” button.

First thing you want to do is…

Remove 3rd-Party Apps from recording your life because that’s creepy.

1. Click on “Applications”.
2. Click “remove” from all the applications you see. These are the ones you aren’t using but have unknowingly agreed to let them take your soul.
3. All the removing was done under the “Authorized Applications” tab section. The tab next to that is “Other Applications” which could mean anything else that you don’t see on your list. Click it.
4. Apparently even if your friends add a 3rd-party app on their Facebook profile, those apps are able to peer into your profile.
5. By default, a few things will be checked. Make sure to UNCHECK all the check-boxes and make sure to save your changes.

Then you want to work on “News Feed and Mini-Feed”

1. Under the “Actions Within Facebook”, you do what you wanna do.
2. After saving those changes, click on the next tab, “Actions on External Websites.” This is important. This section will tell your friends if you shopped at Victoria Secret (don’t ask me) or WalMart.com and show it on the main page.
3. Check the “Don’t allow any websites to send stories to my profile” box.
4. Save the changes and click on the 3rd tab – “Social Ads”
5. Not sure what this does to but you don’t want to be in an ad when you’re not getting paid for it. So change the setting to “No One” and then save the changes.

Doing this, you can sleep a bit better tonight. It’s 11:06PM right now meaning half the people I know are already in bed. Good night!