If you were paying attention last week and used up some of your valuable time on so called ‘Good Friday’, you may recall that we talked about the SNAFU that is Facebook, stumbling from one privacy disaster to another, via facilitating election influence and fraud.
In fact we were so bold as to suggest that “with these continued and persistent howlers and the platform being used seemingly without sanction or control as a tool to influence democracy, push may well come to shove sooner rather than later.”
So push does appear to have come to shove. It looks like the Federal Trade Commission may be fining the mighty Zuckbook up to 5 Beeelion Dollah, and The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) has released the findings a formal enquiry into matters Zuck, post Cambridge Analytica, with a fairly damming verdict; “Facebook’s refusal to act responsibly is deeply troubling given the vast amount of sensitive personal information users have entrusted to this company”.
Someone had/has to do something. If you missed last week’s blog for whatever reason, we highly recommended Carol Cadwalladr’s Ted Talk.
Whilst we are on the subject of our accurate soothsaying, you may well remember the fate of Marcus Hutchins Esq, who hot on the heels of being acclaimed a saviour of The Nation having disrupted the WannaCry ransomware outbreak in the NHS and others by identifying and blocking a C&C server or some such, travelled to DEF CON/Black Hat in Vegas and was seemingly bugged by the feds bragging about his role in creating the Kronos banking trojan and subsequently had his collar felt. In evidence, amongst other very specific details, the FBI had a video of Marcus explaining how the malware worked, whoops.
Cynical about the denials from the outset as were most in our business, we were unsurprised when Hutchins pleaded guilty and can expect a bit of bird and a hefty fine. Love them or loathe them, the FBI are very good at getting their man. If you have done something even remotely shady, Canada might be a better holiday destination.
Back to the more, but no less important mundane issues of the day. It looks like infection of Internet of Ting Tings for Botnet and other nefarious activities (mwahahaha) is very much on the up, with the terrifying news that 2 Meeelion or more devices connected to the Internet are wider open than Nigel Farage’s mouth. If you have any of the devices identified in this fabulous piece by The Exalted Brian Krebs, you should get a plan together to manage your risk.
Perhaps you don’t know what your IO Ting Ting exposure is. We would be happy to help you quantify and manage it. Contact us at: [email protected] or call 020 7517 3900 if you would like a visit from our team.
With apologies to Peter Barthelme.
