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Once again, Facebook has a lot of explaining to do
Just when you thought things couldn't get worse for Facebook, The New York Times has come out with a bombshell exposé of the company's tumultuous last two years. That, of course, includes its handling (er, mishandling) of the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal and other controversies, like the lack of transparency around Russian interference on its site leading up to the 2016 US presidential election. The paper says it spoke with more than 50 people, including current and former Facebook employees, who detailed the company's efforts to contain, deny and deflect negative stories that came its way.
Facebook responds to the New York Times' blockbuster exposé
The New York Times recently published a bruising Facebook report saying, among other things, that the social network knew about Russian interference well before it said, feared Trump supporters and lobbied against critics. The nature of the article stunned even jaded tech observers, but now Facebook has issued a point-by-point rebuttal. It denied that it knew about Russian activity as early as spring of 2016, prevented security chief Alex Stamos from looking into it and that it discouraged employees from using iPhones out of spite for Tim Cook's comments.
Facebook’s two-factor ad practices give middle finger to infosec
We've all encountered security questions asking where we went to school, our favorite color or food, our first concert, and the ubiquitous "mother's maiden name." Imagine a world where on one screen you carefully chose Stanford, red, spaghetti and so on, and on the next you were shown ads for Italian restaurants, red shoes, and jobs for Stanford grads. Seems like an insane violation, right? I mean, it stands to reason that we expect that the information we type to secure our online accounts and apps is private and safely guarded.
Facebook's security chief is leaving the company
Facebook's Chief Security Office Alex Stamos has announced that he's leaving the social network, and the company might leave his seat unoccupied. According to The New York Times, the company doesn't have any plans to appoint a successor, which some might consider a controversial decision for a company with huge privacy issues. The publication says it got its hands on an internal post from Stamos back in January, wherein he revealed that Facebook's security team will be disbanded and will no longer be a standalone group. Former members of the team will work more closely with the other product and engineering teams instead.
Facebook's top lawyer is leaving the company
Facebook's week has taken another turn for the worse. The social network's general counsel Colin Stretch (above) has announced he's leaving the company by year's end, according to The Wall Street Journal. Stretch testified during the hearings in Washington, DC last November and has been with the company since 2010. He made the announcement via his Facebook page, saying that his departure was the result of logistics. A few years ago Stretch moved to Washington DC and apparently the differences in time zones and working with his team shaped the decision.
Facebook's outgoing security chief sent a damning company-wide memo
Facebook's outgoing security chief, Alex Stamos, sent a damning internal memo just days after the Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light, urging the company to "intentionally not collect data where possible, and to keep it only as long as we are using it to serve people." The note, titled "A Difficult Week" and dated March 23, states, "We need to listen to people (including internally) when they tell us a feature is creepy or point out a negative impact we are having in the world.
F8 proved there’s no escape from Facebook
During a keynote about privacy at F8, Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos shared an image of the world that used light to show the sheer size of the company's network. It was intended to highlight all the places where people are using a Facebook product and, as you might expect, there weren't many dark spots.
Facebook hopes to write the security 'playbook' for others to follow
It was only back in March that Facebook's Chief Security Officer, Alex Stamos, was rumored to be leaving the company after reportedly clashing with other execs over its disclosure of Russia's meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. But, that clearly never happened (though he did say his role "changed"), and Facebook has been dealing with a lot more problems than just election interference since then -- like ensuring that it keeps people's personal data safe. Today, Stamos took the stage at the F8 developers conference to talk about Facebook's efforts in security and how it plans to address the many issues it faces now and others that may arise in the future.
Facebook security chief is reportedly leaving over misinformation dispute
Facebook's struggle to deal with Russian manipulation campaigns has produced a casualty among its upper ranks. The New York Times has learned that chief information security officer Alex Stamos is expected to leave Facebook in August after butting heads with other executives (including COO Sheryl Sandberg) over the company's approach to Russian influence campaigns. He had pushed for investigations and disclosures, sources said, much to the "consternation" of top staff.
Yahoo reportedly downplayed security for years
That massive Yahoo hack might have been less of a one-off disaster and more a symptom of larger, systemic problems with security at the internet pioneer. New York Times sources claim that Yahoo made security a relatively low priority for years, prioritizing convenience when possible and reacting only after serious incidents (such as bug bounties following an account breach in 2012). Reportedly, the company even skipped out on safeguards that are considered virtually mandatory in many places -- CEO Marissa Mayer rejected a password reset out of concern that it would drive users away from Yahoo Mail.
Facebook security lead wants Adobe to say when it's killing Flash
To put it mildly, Adobe's Flash plugin has fallen from grace in recent years. BlackBerry, Google and other companies once thought it was crucial to the web, but you'll now find many of these outfits going out of their way to avoid and contain Flash in the names of both security and promoting true standards. Need further proof that it's a pariah? Just ask Facebook's new security chief, Alex Stamos. He's calling on Adobe to not only choose an "end-of-life date" for Flash, but to enable web browser "killbits" that shut it off for everyone at once. That's the only way to "disentangle the dependencies" and get everyone to move on to more secure technology like HTML5, he argues.
