Noura Al Zaben:Facebook and Twitter

The January 2010 "Security Threat Report: 2010" from SOHOS starts with a section on social networking sites; the summary includes the statements, "2009 saw Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites solidify their position at the heart of many users' daily Internet activities, and saw these websites become a primary target for hackers. Because of this, social networks have become one of the most significant vectors for data loss and identity theft." 

The section on social networking (page 2) reports, "Companies now commonly use blogs to disseminate and share information. Forums serve as a form of technical support where professionals can troubleshoot with peers and colleagues. Meanwhile, many companies embrace Facebook and MySpace because the sites present a great way to connect with customers and spread the latest company news or product offerings to the public."

Do you receive a steady stream of invitations to join Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster? I have been told repeatedly by friends and colleagues that I should post personal information on these sites, tweet on Twitter, and use some of the many other social-networking tools available. However, as a computer-security professional, I have purposely avoided joining Facebook and tweeting on Twitter.

It's against my sense of personal security to use Web sites asking for personal information unless I have a pretty good idea that they are secure. I like to use Netcraft's Web phishing toolbar to avoid connecting to dubious sites. Unfortunately, from what I have researched about Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, I do not feel that they warrant my trust.

Vast attack surface

Businesses have taken to using social-networking sites to promote their services and to connect with prospective clients. While the trend may be progressive, it is also progressively risky. Facebook was designed by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 as a project to keep students connected. It appears that Mr. Zuckerberg was not familiar with techniques for developing secure Web-facing sites. The result was a non-secure application: a hacker's paradise, but an end-user's nightmare.

According to two Internet security researchers who presented at the Black Hat Briefings in 2008, sites like Facebook and MySpace are eminently hackable for several reasons. Shawn Moyer, founder of consultancy Agura Digital Security [and responsible for one of the funnier LinkedIn profiles that MK has ever seen], and Nathan Hamiel, founder of the Hexagon Security Group, presented evidence that social networks use "wide open" APIs; this means that the applications used to run sites like Facebook and Myspace allow unrestricted application data interchanges. The attack surface is vast. The programming flaws "permit attackers to tap into user applications and exploit site code that's wide open to cross-site scripting and other attacks." It seems tantamount to hanging out signs on Facebook and Myspace that say, "Hack Me."

Noura Al Zaben: second Life

Your Second Life Avatar May Impact How You Act In Real Life

from the you-mean-second-life-may-have-a-purpose? dept

Slashdot points us to a clip from NPR's All Things Considered discussing some research out of Stanford about how the appearance of your virtual avatar may impact your actions in real life. In the story, two examples are given. The first is showing a thinner version of you, and letting you see the avatar exercising and getting thinner. Apparently, being able to see that (very fast) "cause-and-effect" really does drive people to exercise more. The second is that if someone has a "more attractive" avatar within a virtual world, once they leave that virtual world, they're more likely to have higher self-esteem and believe that they're better looking in real life as well. In the study given, right after leaving the virtual world, the subjects are told to create online dating profiles and pick people that they thought were their equals. Those who had more attractive avatars picked more attractive real life people as "attainable." The researchers (of course) have their own website with more info. 

While this sounds like interesting research, it seems rather early to draw many conclusions from it. In fact, I'm a little surprised that the Slashdot post about it didn't mention the obvious parallels to questions about research on how people act after playing violent video games. That research has generally shown that it makes kids emotional, but just for a short period of time -- which would make me wonder how long-term the impacts of seeing these avatars is as well. However, if the goal is to just give you a little burst of motivation to get over some self-doubt or inertia (say, to exercise), then that might not be a bad thing. Either way, the research itself is interesting -- but it's still early. It'll be worth watching what comes out of the research down the road.

people pick their avatars based on what they wish their physical self was like. some portion of these people actually work on improving themselves, completely independent of the game, and as a result look more like their avatars.

Back when I played WoW, I played an undead. a FEMALE undead. I played female because the males looked like they poopie in their pants when they walked. Not ONCE in real life did I ever desire to summon a demon, cut off my knees, gouge out my eyes, grow a rack. Hell, I never even wanted to trance dance.

Why? because my avatar was NOT a representation of why I wanted myself to be. It was a representation fo the character I was playing in a game. No more. (ok, it was also nice eye candy... yes, even rotting festering corpses are made to look like hotties in WoW)

Talar Kazanji- Real, but not so Real

My avatar is a mermaid in Vintage clothing. Her name is Nayiri. Her tail is made of a bunch of pearls, and changes colors according to her mood. She has hair like Marilyn Monroe, but in red, wears black-framed glasses, has long eyelashes, rosy cheeks, and wears red lipstick. She has green eyes and wears a pearl headband. She is an Algebra, Biology, and Chemistry nerd. She only eats pasta and pizza and never gains weight. She lives in the Caspian Sea, in a beautiful underwater penthouse made of pearls. She specializes in fashion designing, kung fu, dancing, composing music, and presenting in Caspian’s number one underwater channel called, Casmania. She also has her own line of Vintage clothes, and face products. She plays the violin and drums. Her best friends are Snow white, Esmeralda, and Jasmine. Her means of transportation is a pig covered with pearls. She has two abilities. The first one is her ability to snap her fingers and change into any clothes she wants. The second ability is her power to change into a Galah parrot, a parrot with 3 colors, pink, grey, and white. This is how she gets to live in the sea, and the sky. She travels all around the world, and sits on the highest mountains in the world, watching people while eating cotton candy.

As good as my avatar sounds to me and as much as I would like to live this fantasy world, I can’t seem to find Second Life important to me as it is to everyone else. It is a good way of escaping the real world and getting engaged in an easier life for a couple of hours, but at the end of the day, it is all just an imagination, an illusion. Second Life is a world given to people to create their own life in a better way and maybe improving it somehow, but to me, it is just another virtual game, which is entertaining and fun. I can shape my life the way I want it to be, without the help of a game. I could have my red Monroe hair and learn how to play various instruments. In case of “never gaining weight” or “turning into a parrot”, these are nothing but imaginations that can never become true. I believe it is always better to start and improve your life in reality, and make true money in tangible life, than become a successful businessman in Second Life and earn money through that method. So, what is the point of believing in Second Life for such unrealistic things that many people want?

One of the videos we watched in class shows how interaction is in Second Life. It is very robotic and 100% computerized. Not only are we fake creatures in Second Life, but also have limited functions. In real life, we are absolutely free to do what so ever. Our body is functioned to do any movement or any facial expression. In Second Life, we are all somewhat the same, as if we are clones of some sort. It is limited, and it has boundaries. In reality, we are God’s creations and are given the best lifelike gifts, our 5 senses, and I don’t think Virtual life can compete with that at any point. 

Mohammed Dhaifallah-Second life

Second life is the place where people are free to do whatever they want without any fair. It is the place where the dreams become real. The person in his second life can create his/ her identities. It is the place where you are the God or the creator. The reasons that explain why people chose the second life is maybe that they are not satisfy in their real life. Some of them are not satisfying with his/her appearance so that he go and create his/her avatar based on what he/she wants to look like. Also, some people go to the second life to do activities that they cannot do it in the real life such as flying. In addition, the others use the second life to waste the time by chatting and plying games.  However, people can also create money in this world by having a job or doing their business in it.

The creator of the second life website or program  is earning money from the users. The users of second

life treat the avatar as they are treating themselves.  They provide and buy everything that makes the

avatar happy such as lands, islands, and clothes. This money goes to the people behind second life, which

means that it is a place of business not only entertainment.  Moreover, this site may draw the boundary of

imagining and dreaming in the real life. It makes them try whatever they want in the second life.

Additionally, we saw in the video how the people are doing unusual behaviors. I think this is because the

problem of using second life or the lack of the skills that in the users. Moreover,

we see how the people ram the wall in the video, and I think this because when

a person exists in the second life more than the real one, which will create

believe in them about second life. This believe about the second life is

provided in the movie "inception" Click her.



My avatar in the second life will be a hero of the world. He has the ability of flying and Supernatural

powers in the fighting. His wear a red and black dress. My house will be a whole island that has Secret

passages underground. Moreover, there is a place in this island which I can see what is going in the city

through cameras distributed in the world.  When I arrest criminals and the thieves, I put them in a prison

under the water so that they cannot escape. My job in this world is to maintain peace and security in the

world.

Maryam Abdallah - Second life: when the first one is not good enough.

Hof's article, My Virtual Life, looks at how Second life, offered some people, literally, a second life. If I sound crazy here, bear with me. What I mean by that is that, some people lost their jobs and they had no money to pay their bills and so they began creating little lives on Second life which helped them to generate some income to get them back on their feet. The article starts off by illustrating how Linden dollars, which are really, a figment of our imagination can be traded in for real bucks, which rings to about 300 Linden dollars for one real dollar. 'My Virtual Life' goes on to discuss the different activities that take place on Second life such as buying land and building your own home (with clicks and not bricks - ah what is this world coming to?), night life, education, and even corporate duties. 

So, did we conclude that a Second life is what we get when our first one is not good enough?

Mmm.. this looks like so much more fun than walking in a real park.

So, last week our class discussion kicked off with the weird videos of random people doing very random things that were anything BUT natural. The video really portrayed what life has become, weird!
Par example, the one that stood out for me was typing on air which I personally interpreted as 'pretending to do something that you're not really doing'. Basically, you may look like you're typing on a keyboard, but really, that is not the case. Similarly, on Second Life, you may look like you're flying around or snorkling under great oceans, but really, you're probably just sunken-eyed, brain-dead, staring at a screen, clicking the mouse uncontrollably, munching on a Snickers bar, packing up the pounds. Not very pretty.

My personal take on Second life is that it is an absolute waste of time and resources! I really don't like the idea of wasting hours, pretending to be something you're not and have things, you don't really have; it's kind of like.. lying to yourself? I'm all for experience. So if you want to discover the underwater world, book a diving trip. Chances are, the money you spend for to be underwater online, you could use less than that amount to get a real experience. However, if it is a confidence issue and you think sitting behind a screen singing online, not with your own voice is going to get you to audition on American Idol then I say hey, go for it, i'm all for positive progress.

Now, this may sound a tad silly but I won't lie to you, if I were to have a go at Second Life, I would like to be a princess. Why you may ask? Well two reasons really:

Reason 1:
When I was younger, I used to watch this show called Australian princess. It was basically about a few women who would come together to compete and learn the ways of a princess; i.e. the way a princess talks, eats, behaves in public, dances, dresses and all the rest of it. A princess gets to enjoy her day doing 'lady' things and dedicates much of her time to important social and cultural issues. Anyway, one night, after the finale, one of the ladies was crowned Australian princess and we got to see a peak into her life. Now I don't remember the details of the finale, but that night, when I went to sleep, I dreamt I was a princess and it was so much fun and it was such a good feeling to be one and I just loved it, ok? Don't judge me. -__-

Reason 2:
Let's be honest, after all our jabber about how Second life can give you the chance to practice what you want to be and give you confidence and all the rest of it.. ok, here is how it works for me: I wasn't born into royalty and that is a once in a life chance/kind of thing. I mean, if it didn't happen, it won't happen; just some basic biological determinism. So no, no matter how hard I practice being a princess on Second life, it's not going to happen! Unless, of course, I marry a prince, but the chances of that happening, I might as well say, I will someday fly!
So there it is, Princess Maryam, with a castle, a courtyard, lady in waiting, tea parties, socials, painting and piano lessons, dinner with the King and Queen... but right now, my little nest is what I love and I am happy with... so no, I am not keen on getting a Second life account.


"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." - Michael Jordan

And I agree with Jordy, but I don't think he was talking about a second life!

What a Second life that is! Haifa Beseisso

In second life, I would be an ambassador of the UNICEF, ambassador of what exactly? I’ll tell you, I want to travel the Arab world and look for talents, I want to look for the amazingly skilled football players that are playing in between cars in their hood, look for the smart scientists and inventors in which only the walls of their room know about. I want to travel the world and influence a lot of people. This person is a very busy busy person and is constantly meeting different people from all over the globe, yet this person has a beautiful house in the village; it is modern and surrounded by horses and a farm. In this house is a big library and a gym, and is environmental friendly.

This person is a famous Abaya designer; she donates the Abayas that she makes to different girls all over the globe. Also, in this second life, I am an athlete, I constantly climb mountains, and go camping, I have a plane that takes me wherever I want to go.

Also, this person holds a party every Friday that brings together family members and friends, sometimes a barbecue party, another time it is a reading party, a sports party, movie party, and other times a party party.


When people talk about second life they often to associate it with negative terms and ideas, however I think that second life is not as bad as they think; look at us we all shared our dreams, got creative, and dug into our imagination when only asked to imagine the character that we would want to be in second life. Second life gives people the chance to visualize their dreams, and live them even if throughout a screen. Thinking about your dreams and seeing them helps you reach them in real life, so second life can be thought of as training center for real life.

I disagree with the video that we watched in class; the one in which people were so bound and could not do anything or move freely; this is the exact opposite of second life;, in second life you can fly if you want to, you can crawl or do whatever it is that you want to do. And a prove of how second life can be successful are the examples that were presented in the article; were it included a number of people that became rich and practiced what they are good at after engaging in second life.

Seera Akra - My Avatar!

My avatar is a smart princess that looks like those of the seventies. It wears a big dress and has a dark black hair that reaches to the ground, but it always raises it up on its head with a style of the seventies. Its eyes are bluish green with very long eyelashes. It only drinks milk and eats honey and dates. It also speaks all the languages of the world. She is very smart, attractive, and especially good at math. My avatar works as a karate teacher in a special security organization and has a flying horse with a carriage. It lives with her King father, the king of "Salam" kingdom, and queen mother in a huge castle. In the castle, the avatar has sixty seven servants, yet it can clean up her castle, cook food, and organize things by pronouncing orders through her special lip stick. It also has disposable dresses and shoes. The princess also has modern villa where her husband, the handsome president of the country of "Kharab", lives with their twenty children. The twenty children are all twins. Her two youngest baby boys oppose gravity and flow on air following her wherever she goes. However, the rest of her children form two basket ball teams and play internationally.


Second life is very interesting, but not to me. My life has many lives in itself that the avatar does not provide it with anything new. One day, I imagine myself to be a princess, another day I act like a child, and another day I dream of being a singer. My many lives are always running through my dreams and imaginations, and these have no limitations at all. Yet, I may still not be a good presenter of what goes on into my mind. I just tried.