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Interpol Chief's Identity Spoofed On Facebook
An anonymous reader writes "Ronald Noble, Interpol's Secretary General, has revealed that cybercriminals have opened two fake Facebook accounts using his name and used them to gather sensitive information. 'One of the impersonators was using this profile to obtain information on fugitives targeted during our recent Operation Infra Red,' Noble said. 'This Operation was bringing investigators from 29 member countries at the Interpol General Secretariat to exchange information on international fugitives and lead to more than 130 arrests in 32 countries.'"
How does spoofing his identity on Facebook help? Was someone dumb enough to send confidential information regarding a criminal investigation to one of these spoof users via Facebook? Please tell me that's not the case. But the article is short on details and I can't think of any other way such a spoof would cause any kind of leak.
Also note that the actual statement says the impersonator was trying to gather sensative data, not quite the success as implied in the summary. The whole speech is available as a pdf here.
I don't know about the rest of you but one of the original reasons I grabbed a Facebook account was to prevent just that kind of thing happening - the same reason I've registered the most obvious forms of my name in as many social networking and emailing services as possible - if I hold the accounts then I possess some control over other people's ability to misrepresent themselves as me.
The way the DNS system work now, If you buy the domain cocacolacoacola.com , It will get from you from the corporation cocacola. You don't see something strange in that?, a city can name of the streets "coca cola", and the corporation will not own the street. But I digress...
If social networks continue to be important, and one is more important than all others, maybe judges will look at this the same way,and will see in very bad light if you create a account for Michael Jackson or Walt Disney. And I mean a crime to just create a empty one. Even if your name is Walter M. Disney (he.. names are not unique!)
-Woof woof woof!
... would use Facebook to provide police level information, even to someone they know. At the least, they should be using an SSL secured e-mail service, if not the Interpol website (which, I hope, is SSL secured).
Interpol are not that stupid. People involved in the case would not pass information through a Facebook account. If this claim is being made, it is because Interpol want to make a point about Facebook (probably to increase information sharing with the authorities) and are using a claim which cannot be disproven.
Also, am FuckingNickName and it seems I have failed at my mission to post an opinion in one thread so anathema to /. readers that I reduce my karma from excellent to negative. "The authorities are actually quite intelligent and know what they are doing" was going to be my reasonable (outside the /. groupthink) angle in this thread, but it appears I cannot post using mine it for another 24 hours.
FTFA: He revealed this information when addressing the attendees at the first Interpol Information Security Conference in Hong Kong, and pointed out that this is why experience and information sharing between INTERPOL and the various law enforcement agencies around the world is a must.
Or maybe just that Assange guy doing his thing.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Y'know, one thing to come of this is that it's probably a good idea to create accounts in social media/networking sites even if you'll never use them just to "reserve" your identity and to deter impersonators a bit, kinda like reserving domain names before cybersquatters bag them. Use a separate "throwaway" email account for them.
That way, if someone creates a fake account in your name, if people see that there's more than one account which has your name, it will give them cause to suspect that one of them is fake, making them more wary against fake accounts.
http://twitter.com/object404
So what is the news here?
1) That someone opens a fake account in the name of someone else (I presume that happens on a regular basis anyways), or
2) That some cluless idiots (sorry for the harsh words) do exchang SENSITIVE information on Facebook? And then they suddenly wonder how this information got into wrong hands?!
Everyone knows that REAL international police chiefs only communicate via messages that will self-destruct in 5 seconds.
Monstar L
by the time you can cypher whois the 'bad guys', you are probably already (voting for/contributing to the murder/mayhem generation machine) almost one. or as they say in bohemia (while they're sucking DOWn stuff, & feasting on nubile virgins); "they're dying anyway, plus, they only came from monkeys, so they're hardly worth fussing over, sell them more pills".
the search continues;
google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=weather+manipulation
google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=bush+cheney+wolfowitz+rumsfeld+wmd+blair+obama+weather+authors
meanwhile (as it may take a while longer to finish wrecking this 'universe'); the corepirate nazi illuminati is always hunting that patch of red on almost everyones' neck. if they cannot find yours (greed, fear ego etc...) then you can go starve. that's their (slippery/slimy) 'platform' now. see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder
never a better time to consult with/trust in our creators. the lights are coming up rapidly all over now. see you there?
greed, fear & ego (in any order) are unprecedented evile's primary weapons. those, along with deception & coercion, helps most of us remain (unwittingly?) dependent on its' life0cidal hired goons' agenda. most of our dwindling resources are being squandered on the 'wars', & continuation of the billionerrors stock markup FraUD/pyramid schemes. nobody ever mentions the real long term costs of those debacles in both life & any notion of prosperity for us, or our children. not to mention the abuse of the consciences of those of us who still have one, & the terminal damage to our atmosphere (see also: manufactured 'weather', hot etc...). see you on the other side of it? the lights are coming up all over now. the fairytail is winding down now. let your conscience be your guide. you can be more helpful than you might have imagined. we now have some choices. meanwhile; don't forget to get a little more oxygen on your brain, & look up in the sky from time to time, starting early in the day. there's lots going on up there.
"The current rate of extinction is around 10 to 100 times the usual background level, and has been elevated above the background level since the Pleistocene. The current extinction rate is more rapid than in any other extinction event in earth history, and 50% of species could be extinct by the end of this century. While the role of humans is unclear in the longer-term extinction pattern, it is clear that factors such as deforestation, habitat destruction, hunting, the introduction of non-native species, pollution and climate change have reduced biodiversity profoundly.' (wiki)
"I think the bottom line is, what kind of a world do you want to leave for your children," Andrew Smith, a professor in the Arizona State University School of Life Sciences, said in a telephone interview. "How impoverished we would be if we lost 25 percent of the world's mammals," said Smith, one of more than 100 co-authors of the report. "Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live," added Julia Marton-Lefevre, IUCN director general. "We must now set clear targets for the future to reverse this trend to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out many of our closest relatives."--
"The wealth of the universe is for me. Every thing is explicable and practical for me .... I am defeated all the time; yet to victory I am born." --emerson
no need to confuse 'religion' with being a spiritual being. our soul purpose here is to care for one another. failing that, we're simply passing through (excess baggage) being distracted/consumed by the guaranteed to fail illusionary trappings of man'kind'. & recently (about 10,000 years ago) it was determined that hoarding & excess by a few, resulted in negative consequences for all.
consult with/trust in your creators. providing more than enough o
Fake Noble: hey, i lost my phone lol, i'm soooooo dumb. do you happen to have the numbers for international fugatives 1 - 130? k thx x0x0
Bustin' some international jewel thieves, yo.
That crazy Lupin, what will he do next?
This is more a complaint with phishing in general, but why on earth are people so gullible? Is it so hard to do a quick search on the web? Send an e-mail to the corporate address of whoever claims to be contacting you? Pick up a phone and talk to customer services? Shoot, even asking a friend for advice would be better than nothing.
In this case, we're talking about the Chief of Interpol. Someone impersonated him to try to get information on a case. A case that they discussed. At a summit. IN PERSON. Whoever might have the information would probably have a direct line of contact to him, or an indirect line through a superior. I certainly hope no one fell for this because it is so ridiculously easy to figure out proper procedure, at least in my opinion.
Interpol has released a late-breaking photo of the suspects.
The inspector charged with apprehending them has declined to comment.
Use of the words "good", "bad" or "evil" is almost invariably the result of oversimplification.
I hope he catches that damn Lupin!
with a certain name, make confidential information on fugitives magically gather to that place?
Or is fb the official communications tool of interpol because they couldn't afford an email server?