WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Facebook on Friday was blocking links to bogus websites set up to look like the home page of the popular social network in a "phishing" attack by hackers"Were aware of the attack and are already blocking links to these new phishing sites from being shared on Facebook," the Palo Alto, California, company said in a statement.
"Were also cleaning up phony messages and wall posts and resetting the passwords of affected users," it said.
Facebook did not say how many of the 200 million users of the social network had been affected in the latest hacker attack.
An unknown number of Facebook users received a message on Thursday from a friend's account urging them to visit websites such as "151.im."
The sites were realistic-looking replicas of the social network's log-in page but were actually controlled by the hackers. The bogus page would capture password information when a user logged in.
Facebook said it believed the latest attack was related to a similar scheme two weeks ago known as "fbstarter.com."
Online social networking services are prime targets for hackers because they provide trusted gateways into users' networks of friends, according to computer security specialists.
Hackers can use breached social networking accounts for "nefarious purposes" such as infecting computers with malware, malicious software, that steals valuable data or commandeers control of machines, according to Internet security firm MarkMonitor.
Facebook advises users to shun messages, posts or links asking for log-in information and to always make certain they are visiting the social networking website's legitimate address of facebook.com.

source: yahoo news.ph

LONDON (Reuters) – MUZU.TV, an Irish-based video website which has won plaudits from the music industry for the way it pays artists when their music is played online, has signed a deal with the world's largest label Universal.
MUZU.TV, which has also signed deals with EMI, Sony BMG, the Ministry of Sound and Cooking Vinyl, says it is purpose-built to pay artists through advertising when their music is played.
Users can either watch music videos on the MUZU site, on artist sites or embed them into social networks.
On Tuesday MUZU announced it had signed a video license to show videos in Britain and Ireland for Universal's global artist repertoire, including the likes of Amy Winehouse and U2. Universal is owned by Vivendi.
It also said on Tuesday it was powering video for all Sony Music artists on the popular Bebo social network and it is the official partner on the Michael Jackson site for Britain and Ireland.
MUZU has been welcomed by the music industry which had previously criticized other sites such as YouTube for failing to properly compensate artists. The industry is also keen to develop their digital businesses as physical sales of CDs fall.

source:news.yahoo.com

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp.'s next version of its Office desktop programs will reach consumers next year, though not likely in conjunction with the Windows 7 operating system.Microsoft is set to announce Wednesday that Office 2010 will be finished and ready to send to manufacturers in the first half of next year.From there, it can take six weeks to four months or more for the programs to reach PC users, said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president in the Microsoft group that makes Office. The timing will differ for big businesses and individual consumers, and for people who buy packaged software versus those who download it.Some industry watchers had expected a new version of Office this year, but Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer extinguished that rumor at a meeting with analysts in February.Capossela declined to be more specific about a launch date. Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, is scheduled to reach consumers by the end of January 2010.Office 2010 — previously known by the code name "Office 14" — will include slimmed-down versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that let people create and edit documents in a Web browser. Consumers will have access to a free, ad-supported version, and Capossela said the company is still hammering out what to charge businesses that want a version without ads.Microsoft plans to let hundreds of thousands of people test a technical preview of the new Office portfolio starting in the third quarter of 2009, Capossela said. The company did not say whether average PC users will have a chance to test a more polished beta version.Microsoft also said a new version of its Exchange e-mail server will be available for purchase in the second half of 2009. When paired with the next version of Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program, Exchange 2010 aims to prevent e-mail faux pas and would warn people against trying to "reply all" to a huge distribution list. Microsoft said it can also be tweaked to stop people from sending e-mail outside the organization, helping businesses cut down on unnecessary e-mail and prevent leaks.A beta version of Exchange 2010 was to be made available on Wednesday. - AP

Sourse:gmanews.tv