Posts tagged Action
Google’s Call to Action: Tell Congress to Vote NO on #SOPA
Jan 18th
To call attention to two bills that would result in massive web censorship and hurt American businesses, Google today has carried through on its promise to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) by blacking out its log…
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Class Action Lawsuit Against Google For Ads On Parked Domains Turned Down
Jan 9th
paidContent reports the lawsuit brought against Google in 2008 over quality of ads showing on parked or error message web pages has been thrown out by the court. On Thursday, January 5th, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila turned down the class action suit brought against Google. He said he would…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Malicious Hackers Play Robin Hood, Anonymous Disavows Action
Dec 26th
A rogue group of malicious hackers penetrated the database of U.S. think tank Stratfor over the Christmas holiday weekend and stole thousands of credit card files. Those credit cards were then subsequently used to make online payments to a variety of charitable organizations. Modern day digital Robin Hood? Think again.
The hack was perpetrated by a groups of malicious hackers loosely affiliated with anti-security group Anonymous. It is hard to tell what hackers are actually part of Anonymous these days as with each successive scheme, one group will claim it is working under the Anonymous banner while another will disavow the action. At this point, Stratfor does not really care what the hackers call themselves.
Sponsor
Stratfor, short for Strategic Forecasting, is a company that caters to the U.S. intelligence community. Hence, it is loosely tied to the U.S. government, making it a target of Anonymous-like hackers. The company tracks global open data to come up with a daily briefing that it sells to its clients. The client list was confidential until the hackers published it on Dec. 24, 2011.
The hackers claim that the credit card data in Stratfor’s database was unencrypted. It is then ripe for the picking. Even though most Anonymous hacks are not designed for outright theft, this wing of the group used the credit card information and started making payments to charities such as the American Red Cross, CARE, Save The Children and Africa Child Foundation. Approximately 17,000 cards were compromised in the hack (though not all had payments to charitable organizations).
While this might seem noble and altruistic, especially the day before Christmas, security blog F-Secure.com points out that the charities involved will have to refund the money when people realize that there are unauthorized transactions on their cards. The charities will need to return the money and may face fees and penalties. There will also be the inevitable cost of human capital to sort the whole mess out.
The Stratfor hack was apparently done by a group of Anonymous associated with a hacker named Sabu. After Sabu and others posted the Stratfor information online, the main Anonymous group moved quickly to say that they had no part in the breach of the company. In a “press release” on Pastebin, an Anonymous member said that the hack was not done by group and that, “Hackers claiming to be Anonymous have distorted this truth in order to further their hidden agenda, and some Anons have taken the bait.”
The Anonymous member goes on to say:
“Stratfor has been purposefully misrepresented by these so-called Anons and portrayed in false light as a company which engages in activity similar to HBGary. Sabu and his crew are nothing more than opportunistic attention whores who are possibly agent provocateurs. As a media source, Stratfor’s work is protected by the freedom of press, a principle which Anonymous values greatly.”
The mention of HBGary is in reference to a series of hacks that the main Anonymous group did claim responsibility for in July 2011. HBGary and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton were targeted in a raid that released 90,000 emails related to the U.S. Department of Defense and actions taken by those two firms that Anonymous believed to be violating the rights of online citizens. The data collection and dissemination by Stratfor apparently does not fall under the same category of the supposed grievances against Booz Allen Hamilton and HBGary.
The Stratfor website is currently offline as of Monday, Dec. 26 at 12:35 p.m. EST.
What do you think of this supposed Robin Hood move by Sabu and his cohorts? Is this the type of activities that so-called “hacktivists” should be engaging in? Let us know in the comments.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
SKorea Urges Japan Action on ‘Comfort Women’ – Bloomberg
Dec 18th
|
SKorea Urges Japan Action on 'Comfort Women'
Bloomberg By Eunkyung Seo and Jae Hur – Sun Dec 18 05:48:54 GMT 2011 South Korean President Lee Myung Bak called for Japan to resolve the so-called comfort women issue in talks with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Kyoto which failed to produce progress on a … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
Socialize Releases Action Bar 1.0 for Building Better Social Apps
Nov 23rd
The team at Socialize has released a new action bar that centralizes the user interface of its mobile engagement platform. Developers can now drop the Socialize SDK into their app and create an bar where users can interact within the app through Facebook, email, text and Twitter and also use in-app commenting.
The new action bar can either be a stand-alone feature within an app or developers can strip the UI from the bar itself and just place the functionality of the action bar within an app. As the Socialize SDK is open source, developers can add the social engagement layer that the startup provides in whatever way they want. This is a significant step for the startup but the team has more up its sleeves coming soon.
Sponsor
Socialize is a 10-person startup based out of San Francisco that grew out of a consulting and development firm that CEO Daniel Odio and partners sold to boostrap AppMakr, the beta channel for Socialize products and kind of parent company. Socialize has doubled its end users from 45,000 or so to 95,000 in the last 30 days and the beta channel has a significant presence with more than 3.7 million end users. Socialize has raised $1 million in angel funding and has been focusing on building its core product and revenue sources before taking any more money.
The action bar is a good step for Socialize as it gives developers and users a more tangible UI to use that will in turn generate data that developers can act upon. Socialize has 25 million activity records on file and growing quickly between the apps that 2,000 developers have created after downloading the SDK.
What Socialize did not announce in its blog post today but is coming down the road soon is an activity bar to match the action bar. The activity bar acts as the in-app notification system of what users have been commenting on, liking and sharing on Facebook and Twitter. The activity unit rests above the action bar and can be seen in the image below.
Socialize has worked with several large organizations to create engagement layers within apps for particular example surrounds the San Diego Chargers, a National Football League franchise that used Socialize to engage the fan base. Charger fans now have a dedicated mobile social network that can be tied to a community, a location or and event (like a home game) through the app. Predictably, it seems that fans are using to call for the ousting of the coach.
Developing a social community can be a great avenue of growth for startup application makers trying to gain users and traffic. It is a cheap way to acquire users outside of paid acquisition channels and keeps users coming back to app. Social layers also create data that developers can act upon to make changes to their apps based on user behavior and community feedback.
Developers – what tangible benefits do you see in adding a social layer to your apps? Let us know in the comments.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Tools & Tips to Get Into Action Immediately Following #SESchi
Nov 22nd
Hopefully, by now, you have managed to fully assimilate the awesome tips and tactics shared at SES Chicago and have made some headway into growing your network of contacts via different social networks. If not, let Search Engine Watch (SEW) help g…
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Judge Throws Out Class Action Lawsuit Against Yelp
Oct 26th
Yelp is off the hook, again. A judge has thrown out a class action lawsuit filed against Yelp that alleged the company tried to extort small businesses by promising to remove negative reviews in exchange for money. As we reported when the suit was first filed in February 2010, the plaintiffs…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Video Marketing Tips: Knowing The Customer’s Pain & Having A Good Call To Action – ReelSEO Online Video News (blog)
Oct 25th
 ReelSEO Online Video News (blog) |
Video Marketing Tips: Knowing The Customer's Pain & Having A Good Call To Action
ReelSEO Online Video News (blog) He is also founder of The Viral Orchard (http://www.viralorchard.com), an Internet marketing firm offering content writing and development services, viral marketing consulting, and SEO services. Jeremy writes constantly, loves online video, … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
Five Action Steps To Take In B2B Reputation Management
Oct 20th
You’re actively monitoring the online chatter about your company. You’re utilizing a powerful social monitoring tool and have plenty of data. But are you truly prepared to respond when negative commentary about your business hits the web?
One of the most effective ways to handle negative opinions…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Bing Introduces Action Buttons to Search Results – Search Engine Watch
Sep 24th
 AdAge.com |
Bing Introduces Action Buttons to Search Results
Search Engine Watch Learn the latest strategies on PPC management, keyword research, SEO, social media, local, mobile, link building, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization, site optimization, usability and more. Early bird rate expires October 21! Bing adjustments can bring calls to action to SERPs |
View full post on SEO – Google News
