Social Items

Google initiated resolves in making the internet open and free have been greatly applauded, especially in state-sponsored blockade of the internet infrastructures. The political revolution in Egypt about two years ago, in which the country's censorship of Twitter was challenged by Google powered Speak2Tweet is a case in point.

Now, the novelty service is back in Syria as the country has decided to clampdown on Twitter access and general internet infrastructure.

Google announced the reactivation of the service in a Google+ post, stating that they have partnered with Twitter to relaunch Speak2Tweet, allowing anyone to tweet using voice call.

The voice connection tweets can be accessed on: twitter.com/speak2tweet and is enabled by simply leaving a voice message on the following phone numbers: (+90 212 339 1447 or +30 21 1 198 2716 or +39 06 62207294 or +1 650 419 4196), then the service will tweet your message.

Guess, that's another way of saying more power to the "Tweeple". And well done Google for championing such great calls.

Google Powered Speak2Tweet Live In Syria

Mozilla's social integration tool, Social API, now has Facebook integrated direct on Firefox, which before now only allows connection to social networks through third-party browser add-on. The company announced the Social API beta since late October, and had on Tuesday commenced full testing of the Social API feature.

The feature is especially useful to keep tab on updates on the social networks without leaving the actual page a user is accessing at the moment. It invariably eliminates frequent tab swapping to keep updated on the social networks proceedings.

However, users are required to upgrade to the latest version of the browser and activate the feature on the Facebook Messenger for Firefox homepage.

Also, Mozilla is currently exploring the possibility of including other social networks on the Firefox Social API, which now has Facebook as the first to join the train.

The company is also calling on developers to contribute to improving the new social tool, even as it awaits feedback from Facebook users who have activated the feature.

Firefox Social API Integrates Facebook

Trend Micro's Rik Ferguson, director of security research and communication, in a blog post on Wednesday reported a vulnerability in Skype application which could allow anyone that knows your email address hack your Skype account. The vulnerability enables one to sign up for Skype with an email address already taken, and then through password reset can gain access to the original account associated to that email address.

But, actual discovery of the vulnerability was credited to a Russian Forum where a proof of concept was posted about three months ago.

Skype on its part has released an official statement acknowledging the vulnerability, and had subsequently suspended the account reset feature temporarily as a precaution; now working on password update process today.

Skype, also added that the issue affected some users where multiple accounts were registered to same email address. The company, however, promised reaching out to those users whose account may have been compromised thereby for necessary actions.

Guess, the days of labeling some information "minor" in security and privacy considerations are over, users discretion to personal details remain paramount.  

Skype Vulnerability: Password Reset Halted

Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger, the pioneering instant messaging platform from the incumbent software giant is scheduled to merge with Skype. Skype, which is a VoIP (Voice-over-Internet Protocol and software application) service was purchased by Microsoft in October, 2011.

According to the Skype Blog,"the aim is to deliver the best communications experience for everyone, everywhere."

Microsoft has planned to shut down Windows Live Messenger in all countries (with the exception of mainland China) starting first quarter of 2013. The company further stated on its resolve to focus on making things simpler for users while continuously improving the overall experience.

Skype 6.0 for Mac and Windows, which was released on 24 October, 2012 allows you to sign into the service using a Microsoft account. IM users simply have to update to this latest version of Skype, sign-in to their account, and all their Messenger contacts will be migrated to Skype form Windows Live Messenger.

The migration to Skype means users can  now avail themselves of both instant messaging and video calling features within the same platform.

Skype Merges With IM And Windows Live!

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is a security mechanism by which a web server can indicate to complying user agents (for instance, a web browser) to interact with it using only secure connection. The HSTS specification is currently an IETF Internet-Draft, and the security policy received approval on 2 October, 2012. Mozilla had announced on the company blog that it has added to Firefox a list of hosts that require HSTS enforced by default.

Firefox "Preloaded List" is seeded with domains from Chrome's HSTS preloaded list of a similar function.

The list building procedure is thus: a request is sent to every host with the mode: "force-https" on Chrome's list. And only host that respond with a valid HSTS header and appropriate large max-age value get included in the list.

HSTS can be an effective tool for protecting the privacy and security of users and their data online.

The "preloaded list" makes it even harder to exploit, as when connecting to an HSTS host for the first time, the browser may not know whether to use secure connection or not, because it has never received a HSTS header from that host. Subsequently, an attacker could exploit that to prevent the browser from connecting securely and a user may never detect that. But, the "preloaded list" helps to mitigate this nature of attack.

Mozilla has called upon developers to download the recent build and give it a spin which is currently available in Firefox Beta.

Mozilla Pushes HSTS Preloaded List on Firefox

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