Slashdot Mirror
Do Twitter Phishing Scams Herald the End of Microblogs?
An anonymous reader writes "Twitter's been hit by a big phishing scam. Culture Crash blogger Dan Tynan says this is the end of Twitter's innocence. Will tweets become like email, with two out of every three just worthless spam?"
If Twitter is smart, it will end its auth api or modify it so that folks have to go to twitter to authorize an application. This is the way that Facebook, Yahoo, and OpenID do it, as well.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
terms like "twitterverse" and "microblog" are heralding the end of the sane Internet, so lets hope they get consumed by the vermin of the Internet.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Thus far Twitter seems like a totally useless idea to me. No, you are not so important that everyone cares what you are doing when you are going shopping.
The exact same crap has been going on with MySpace and other viral sites for years. This ain't news. The funny thing is that the idiots who eat that shit up like to say that their profile was "hacked" when they were really just too lazy to look at the damn address bar.
While in your example that's probably true, I personally like it because it's a quick and brainless way to communicate with friends. It's just fun. Organizations find it's useful as a good way to update people, but past that it's not a serious experience, and shouldn't be treated as one.
Thus far Twitter seems like a totally useless idea to me. No, you are not so important that everyone cares what you are doing when you are going shopping.
I suppose if you don't have any friends that like to keep up with what's going on in your life and vice versa.
Open Source, Open Standards, Open Minds
Agreed. Much like the "blogosphere," twitter is the kind of thing that is OMFG WORLD CHANGING.... but only to its users.
It's great that the service is there and all, but like facebook, myspace, et al, I really wish people would stop blithering about how INSANELY GREAT it is.
A web gui for the equivalent of an IRC or AIM /away message is about as world-changing as a gui for a MUD. Sure, at least one is successful... but I don't do MUDs or MMOs, so how has it changed my life, aside from a few of my friends disappearing for months whenever a new expansion is released?
That said, a pointless-to-me-anyway service that people I otherwise respect can't shut up about is being crapflooded? Awesome!
Because only twits use it.
Seriously, go join the Peace Corps and dig wells in Africa you self-indulgent f*cksticks.
And no, we won't read your blog to learn how you heroically overcome your run-in with dysentery.
I suppose if you don't have any friends that like to keep up with what's going on in your life and vice versa.
That's what conversations are for. You know, real physical human interaction. Remember that?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I'm kind of with you on this one. I remember back in the day, if you spent more than an hour on the phone people thought there was something wrong with you. Back then I thought they were right. If some galactic disaster wiped out electronics on Earth, there would be a lot of people who suddenly lose it because they have nobody to blab to. Twitter gives them this outlet even when they are surrounded by people that really don't want to hear their crap. It's really no different than thinking outloud or talking to walls; an umbilical cord to keep them from having to be alone. They talk about how great it is because they are addicted and cannot function without someone listening to them blabber on about nothing all day. As long as they are talking, they feel somehow important. - Yes, I get the irony
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Every method of human communication brings with it the reasons we communicate. Spam, reduced to its essential quality, is broadcasting greed. And that emotion has been around since the dawn of civilization. Every "new" communications medium will have it, and in western civilization with its emphasis on individuality, materialism, and consumerism, it will be all the more prominent. So is it really news that another medium (in this case, twitter) has started to reflect this? Not really.
Concurrently, we've been evolving ways of blocking out this trash -- ad filtering, blocking software, downloading our TV episodes online, etc. There is a real grassroots effort underway to fight back against advertising and an emphasis on "real" communication -- that is, honest opinions by people we trust. In this disconnected world, networks of trust have become more important than ever as a way of not drowning in the sea of greed, self-indulgence, and attention-grabbing behavior. I know people that use gmail for one reason alone: The spam filtering is just that damn good. I have seen people breathe a sigh of relief and leap to hug me after setting up firefox with ad blocking software -- they are geniunely happy.
The real story here isn't twitter turning to a sea of suck, it's that our culture is changing on a fundamental level. And it is doing this without any real organization, without any center. It doesn't seem necessary for a person to be part of a certain subculture or have exposure to a certain trigger to start it; It's a stand alone complex. That is, for those who haven't seen Ghost in the Shell, a phenomenon where unrelated, yet very similar actions of individuals create a seemingly concerted effort.
We're going to see more of this in the years to come.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
You can no longer innocently follow a link because some quasi-stranger tweeted it to you without being wary
Let me fix that for you:
You can't innocently follow a link because some quasi-stranger tweeted it to you without being wary
Why would you, or anyone, have ever assumed otherwise?
Why don't we string up the "term life insurance broker in Charlotte, North Carolina" who paid for this crap? Any business that pays spammers to promote their business should face criminal charges and civil damages.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Just because I personally don't use something like Twitter doesn't mean it has no value. Personally I would hate that level of being pestered but I'm from a generation that is pre-cell phone, etc. Heck, I still only use my cell phone when I want to use it and don't have any of the annoying web services on it.
All this means is that another communication medium is being exploited. Not exactly big news. There's probably stone tablets out there that could be classified as 'phishing' or 'spam' as we use the concepts.
We'll see yet another iteration of pseudo and real security measures and user training and it won't prevent it from happening again and again and again. Nigerian scam, anyone?
Back on topic. I'm not going to slam the service or any of the new terms that have sprung up in a way to sound bite what it does. It's just a wake up call that there is no free lunch, there is no free beer, the cake is a lie, and only you can prevent forest fires.
The most merciful thing in the internet, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We surf in a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of lol cats, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The networks, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated bytes will open up such terrifying vistas of content, and of the frightful capsuns therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly lulz into the peace and safety of a new gym pass.
I've lost all my marbles except one & It's fun to test angular & centripetal acceleration in my skull
http://xkcd.com/285/
I've lost all my marbles except one & It's fun to test angular & centripetal acceleration in my skull
I can easily text message Twitter that I'm heading over to a different town for work and wouldn't mind getting together for coffee with friends and leave it open for people to give me a call.
Cool, then they can send a text message to twitter that they they like coffee in different towns, and leave it open for people to call them.
Then you can text message twitter just to reinforce just how open to the idea of someone calling you you are.
And they can text message twitter with the same.
And then...
Gee, no wonder it ended up being a never ending chat room.
See... the way I do it is... If I want to have coffee with you, I'll just call or email you. If I don't, then I don't. I don't need to play this ridiculous game of passive aggressive "I want to have coffee with you, but you have to ask me." that you seem to enjoy.
People like this seem to be selectively blind to the usefulness of great ideas and new technology in an attempt to keep a stranglehold on their "back in my day" ways of doing things. With any luck they'll be arrested in some foreign country and have no one to converse with. 'Cept for a large man named Cheryl who loves "physical human interaction".
Why would phishing attempts on Twitter spell the death of microblogs? I guess because phishing already killed email. Oh wait, it didn't. Maybe it killed eBay then. Hmmm, nope, still going. Ah, but PayPal is surely in troub-- nope, it's ok too. Has phishing actually killed anything at all yet?
Gone are the days of "*ring*ring* Hello? [It's a BOY!!!!!!!!!] Congratulations, dude!".. nowadays you have to subscribe to the twit's twits or be left behind... worse yet, if you did not subscribe, *clearly* you didn't care about his newborn at all so be prepared for a "F U."
MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are all called part of the 'social networking' arena, but I'm starting to side with the psychologists of 5 years ago... these things are just making us -less- social and far more superficial.
I love that the tools exist, I hate what they tend to do to people.
This is true for people who use it like idiots, the kind who do follow everyone. For people who have enough self control to follow only people whose updates they care about - twitter is a valuable tool.
I have friends and family in far-flung geographic locations. Back when the world was limited to my neighborhood, "real physical human interaction" was a viable option. Now? The world's gotten too big.
Twitter, blogs, email are great ways for me to keep up with those people. Face-to-face interactions aren't an option when I live in Texas and have family in Chile and Switzerland, and phone conversations require a scheduling miracle. (The whole "free" aspect of it is nice, too.)
Criss (CrissWrites on Twitter)
http://crisswrites.blogspot.com
Well I did get that call (and that announcement was not twittered). But I certainly wasn't going to get a call every 30 minutes or an hour saying "still no baby but she's doing fine", which I could follow via twitter.
I seriously hate to defend Twitter, because I generally agree that it's stupid, but keep in mind that some people leave their hometowns after they grow up. I live in Indiana, but most of my friends are in Minnesota and Wisconsin, with many elsewhere in the country and some on other continents.
It's not always practical to physically hang out with people, and writing dozens of e-mails to various friends and family members saying "How are you doing?" is not the most ideal way to keep in touch. Before Facebook, I communicated regularly with exactly 2 geographically distant friends, and kinda/sorta kept in touch with maybe 20 others. Now, I can see what everyone is up to, and how they're doing. It doesn't replace seeing them, or even sending one-to-one e-mails, but it's better than nothing.
Of course, this is only defending the general idea of passive methods of communication like Twitter and Facebook because regular face-to-face interaction is not practical if you have more than about 10 friends. In practice, I don't give a crap what the person who was in my high school economics class ate for dinner last night. I get annoyed reading people's Facebook statuses, I can't imagine reading Twitter updates.
Being a computer scientist means you tell people how computers should work, not that you know how they actually work.
First off, your post made no sense.
Secondly, your post shows an immense lack of comprehension of what I said.
I text a message status to Twitter " ... is going to be in Toledo this weekend, anyone free?" instead of calling EVERYONE I might know in Toledo and then saying "well hold on, I haven't called Y or Z yet."
X, Y and Z can then either privately message me back or give me a call directly that they're free and want to do something.
Funny, sounds much more efficient than leaving voice mail messages everywhere, or texting everyone I know in sequence. Also consider that many other people I know are also very mobile and might be in Toledo when I am without me knowing it.
Of course, you sound pretty selectively social by comparison with your "I'll call you" attitude. No need to tell your friends they'd be free to call you instead huh?
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
It might be the 'best' way, but it's not always an option. Particularly with friends who live nowhere near you and who you will not have a daily or even monthly chance to interact with face to face.
http://transformativeworks.org/
Problem is one of using the right tool for a job - a blog (or twitter) is not a substitute for real time, acknowledged communication, any more than it's a good idea to email me to let me know my mail server is down.