Tech Talk

The FBI sent an email warning Friday evening to officials across America warning them of a potential attack on financial and law enforcement entities by the hacking group Anonymous.

The email, which Tech Talk has obtained a copy of, reports that Anonymous announced a nationwide “Day of Vengence” in dozens of cities across the U.S. beginning at “High Noon” on Sept. 24, stating:

In coordination with these protests across the USA on September 24th, Anonymous and other cyber liberation groups will launch a series of cyber attacks against various targets including Wall Street, Corrupt Banking Institutions – and the NYC Police Department. We encourage the media to follow the Twitter feed @PLF2012 for ongoing reports throughout the day.

The FBI warns that public and private entities associated with the recent execution of Troy Davis in the state of Georgia may also be targed, as well as additional law enforcement agencies.

The federal agency did not release any additional information about the threat, including to the specific nature or means.

However, the FBI did cite history as a potential guide:

[I]n the past, Anonymous has engaged in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, utilized SQL injection to gain unauthorized access to computer systems, conducted social engineering to gather personal identifying information, and released both personal information (i.e. “doxing”) and the contents of compromised systems (e.g. e-mail message content, passwords, etc.).

The FBI encouraged agencies to use strong, unique passwords, to update software to protect against known vulnerabilities and ensure that Web-based applications are not at risk to attacks, such as SQL injection.

An assault is raging on Twitter.

Thousands of accounts on the popular social network have been hijacked and turned into spammers at a speed never before seen, Mashable reports. It may be tied to the recent attack against Gawker and its 1.3 million commenters.

The tweets link to domains containing “acainews,” the technology blog reports — and it is strongly advised to steer clear of such links. Many of the tweets seem to advertise a berry-based product that will help folks to lose weight.

Folks operating compromised accounts should immediately change their passwords and then check if their accounts have been linked to unknown third-party accounts.

Tech Talk advises folks never to use the password for more than one account, that all passwords are at least 12 characters long and contain special characters, numbers and capital letters and to change all passwords every 30 days.

The Internet has been compared with an untamed wilderness because of its seeming ability to foster rebels wishing to strike against the world’s most powerful and then elude capture.

However, the world’s reaction to the WikiLeaks diplomatic cable leaks has shined a light on how even the Web could fall in line with the world’s standards, expecations and influences.

As documents continue to surface against the wishes of some of the world’s most powerful players, a noose continues to tighten around the resources and founder of WikiLeaks.

The site was banished from Amazon’s servers last week, as Tech Talk reported. Days later, PayPal followed suit. And most recently, MasterCard and Visa have cut payments to the organization.

As if Amazon’s blow was not difficult enough for the organization to overcome, the loss of income could be devastating to WikiLeaks’ very survival — particularly at a time when it needs liquid finances the most desperately.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange faces a potential extradition to face sexual assault allegations in Sweden.

The situation reminds us that no one could hide on the Internet from a determined world — and ultimately, cyberspace is not much different from our brick and mortar world.

PETA sent Tech Talk this screen capture of a message its members posted on DKNY's Facebook page.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals used Donna Karan New York’s own social media presence against it on this, one of the largest online shopping days of the year.

PETA members posted a vertical message that reads “DK BUNNY BUTCHER” for the fashion titan’s more than 204,700 fans to see in the past hour in reference to the company’s decision to sell fur.

“PETA has sent Donna Karan executives detailed information about the suffering of animals who are raised and killed for their fur, and thousands of people have taken action against the designer, who continues to use rabbit fur from China,” a PETA spokesperson wrote to Tech Talk. “Undercover investigations have revealed that animals on Chinese fur farms are hung upside down, screaming and kicking, and are forced to watch those ahead of them die violently before their own throats are cut.”

The 16 accounts posted seemingly positive messages on DKNY’s Facebook wall — with the real message hidden in each user’s profile photo.

Among the wall posts:

• Listen, some bunny loves you!
• Fashion is life and death.
• Can u show us what goes into ur designs?
• Nothing is more important than fashion, right!?!
• Fashion to die for…
• I would kill for one of your fur coats.
• DKNY continually shocks me!
• I’m trying to save something today – can u help?
• What’s the cost of a fur coat?
• Who wouldn’t do anything for a Donna Karan coat!

Of course, after understanding the context of the overall message, the individual wall posts take on a different meaning.

DKNY appeared to be unaware of the messages as it posted at least once after its wall was defaced:

Our Cyber Monday treat: 20% Off of the entire site (both DKNY & Donna Karan New York) PLUS Free Shipping. Happy Shopping! www.dkny.com

Administrators are not notified each time a person posts on a fan page and must monitor comments.

Regardless of one’s opinions on either company, PETA’s strategy is a smart one — and one that will likely be repeated more often as more brands turn to the Web to disseminate their message.

“This is the first time that PETA has used this particular approach on Facebook,” Ashley Byrne, a senior campaigner for PETA, told Tech Talk. “We have, however, used Facebook many times to get our message across. When Brookstone was selling live frogs inside cheap plastic enclosures — misleading customers and causing the deaths of countless frogs in their stores by hiding sick animals in back rooms — we asked our members and supporters to post comments on Brookstone’s page expressing their concern for the frogs’ welfare. It was not long before the company’s Facebook fan page was taken down.”

Byrne said her company believes the use of social media is an effective tool for online advocacy and virtual activism.

“PETA uses social media in a variety of ways to interact with supporters on a personal level and share information,” she told Tech Talk. “PETA members took over Donna Karan’s Facebook page in order to pressure Karan to drop fur from her designs. We knew that Facebook would be an effective platform for letting Donna Karan’s fans know that Karan continues to design with fur even though she’s aware that gentle rabbits endure tremendous suffering because of the fur industry.”

Byrne said PETA hopes that by posting on the DKNY Facebook page, a new audience may be reached.

“Social networks have allowed PETA to connect with supporters on an individual and immediate level,” Byrne said. ”We are able to interact with any one of our 1 million Facebook fans or 100,000 Twitter followers. We can address specific questions and concerns, offer advice, and share in joint victories.”

Byrne said social media allowed PETA to stay in constant touch with supporters.

“By using social media, we can deliver information to our supporters in real time. We are able to update them on developments relating to campaigns and victories as they happen,” she said. “We knew that by targeting Karan’s Facebook page on Cyber Monday, we could convince more people to boycott her designs until she drops fur for good.”

The Connecticut State Police is warning residents to be wary of graphic e-mails.

Officers in Troop E in Montville are investigating a graphic e-mail sent to e-mail accounts throughout southeastern Connecticut. The public is asked to delete any e-mail with the subject of: ” We are the world, we are the children……..enjoy.”

The contents of the e-mail are graphic and may contain a virus that will further spread the virus to infected users’ contacts, police warn.

The State Police has e-mailed known users who have received the e-mail with a note containing the subject: “STATE POLICE ***WARNING****”

Tech Talk advises residents across Connecticut and throughout the United States to be on the lookout given the apparent ease at which the virus could spread.

As always, Tech Talk warns users to be wary of any e-mails that are not from known recipients; appear to be SPAM or have offers seemingly too good to be true — even if they are from the accounts of trusted individuals. As this case highlights, it is not difficult for accounts to be compromised.

It is also a good idea to update anti-virus software.

Ever since Facebook introduced its feature that allows users to “like” something posted on a friend’s profile, users of the social network have  asked for the ability to “dislike” content. Facebook has yet to introduce such a feature — but a new scam is making its rounds and taking advantage of many users.

According to Mashable, the scam entails a status message that says:

I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!

or

Get the official DISLIKE button now

Both scams include a link that appears to ultimately capture personal information after navigating through an “install” page.

If Facebook were to introduce such a feature, history demonstrates it would install it directly on its users’ accounts — and not require an installation of anything. It would be wise to avoid any offers, like this, that appear too good to be true and require a download or installation of anything to work.

One of America’s most secretive military facilities reportedly embedded a series of numbers and letters in its logo for the public to crack.

The United States Cyber Command embedded the following code around a perched eagle: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a.

“It’s not just random numbers and does ‘decode’ to something specific,” a source told Wired magazine.

The technology publication will award a small, but appropriate prize, to the first person to send it the correct answer.

Learn more here — and get cracking.