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Facebook has helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) track down the cybercriminals whose "botnet" is said to have caused losses worth more than $850 million. A total of 29 local FBI offices and departments worked on the case, along with a ... half dozen foreign police and crime agencies. Ten people have now been arrested in the United States, the United Kingdom, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, New Zealand, and Peru. (Source: fbi.gov ) Those accused of participating in the botnet scheme allegedly helped spread a worm virus called 'Yahos.' This virus reportedly self-replicated ... (view more)

Austrian students are reportedly planning legal action over the way Facebook handles customer privacy. However, the lawsuit would be launched against European data regulators based in the Republic of Ireland, not Facebook itself. The students have ... formed a group dubbed Europe-v-Facebook. Its leader is law student Max Schrems, who made headlines in 2011 after exercising his right to demand a copy of all the data Facebook stored about him. Schrems learned the company had collected so much data about him it had to be delivered on a CD rather than in print. Shortly thereafter, Schrems discovered ... (view more)

Facebook is planning to drop a system that allows users to vote on whether or not the social networking site can alter its policies. The company says the site is now too large for such a system to work effectively. Until now, Facebook has been ... tracking comments on posts related to its proposed policy changes. Once there are more than 7,000 "substantive" posts, the proposal automatically goes to a vote of all Facebook users. The voting system began in 2009, when Facebook received complaints about proposed changes to the legal rights it claimed over photos, videos, and other materials its users ... (view more)

Facebook has announced an improvement to its antivirus marketplace. At the same time, the social networking site also announced it will begin working closely with security companies to build a database of dangerous, rogue websites. The security ... software will be featured in Facebook's antivirus marketplace, which launched this past April. The marketplace allows security firms to promote their products and allows users to choose one antivirus product for a free trial, then extend their coverage with a paid subscription. Facebook says 30 million users have visited the marketplace since it ... (view more)

Facebook has flatly denied that private messages sent between 'Friends' on that social network have appeared on users' public profile pages. Despite widespread reports of this problem in France, Facebook says the claims are a technical impossibility ... and may be the result of confusion. The claims were first reported by the French newspaper Metro, which wrote that "private messages dating from 2007, 2008 and 2009 now appear directly in user's timelines." However, Metro noted the "problem is not systematic." (Source: metrofrance.com ) Cheaters Exposed by Facebook Problem Following the reports, ... (view more)

If you're not convinced that every Facebook fan page really earned all of its "Likes," you are not alone. That's why Facebook's management team has decided to weed out and remove any fake "Likes" that can be identified. For years Facebook has ... offered users the ability to indicate they "Like" individual pages and posts. Facebook members can "Like" their favorite celebrity, their favorite band, their friends' vacation photos, and even a witty status update. The problem is, "Likes" became a form of currency for Facebook spammers. To artificially spike interest in certain pages -- ... (view more)

A privacy protection group based in Germany is threatening court action against Facebook. The group says the social networking site's new "App Center" feature doesn't give users enough information about how their personal data will be shared with ... software developers. The complaint comes from the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (VZBV), which translates as the Federation of German Consumer Organizations. The VZBV is made up of consumer groups based throughout Germany. The VZBV is most concerned with Facebook's App Center, which launched in July, and which covers the various smartphone-style ... (view more)

Freedom of speech online is once again the topic of heated debate, this time in India. That country's government has now urged major sites like Facebook to remove threatening material that may have provoked a mass exodus from some regions. The issue ... stems from religious disputes in Assam, a region in the northeast of India where long-time residents have clashed with immigrants from nearby Bangladesh, leading to dozens of deaths. In the past week, angry residents of Assam have used the Internet to threaten the immigrants with violence. The threats have reportedly caused "tens of thousands" of ... (view more)

McAfee has released a new browser add-on that allows Facebook users to more privately post personal pictures. The app reportedly prevents strangers from viewing these images. Called Social Protection, it's a plug-in that offers two viewing features: ... First, it allows users to blur all their uploaded photos, and allow only the contacts the user selects to see them clearly. Second, the software allows a user to select which images will be blurred. This allows all the other photographs to remain visible to Facebook friends, by default. Images Blurred in Timeline, News Feed Using this new system, ... (view more)

Facebook has acknowledged that almost one in ten user accounts registered with the social networking site are fake. Facebook says these 83 million accounts include duplicates, those set up for users' pets, or those registered for organizations ... rather than for actual individuals. Facebook officials made this startling admission in the company's very first quarterly report to American financial regulators. Specifically, the company revealed that about 8.7 per cent of its 955 million global users fall into these and other questionable categories. (Source: abcnews.com ) Duplicates Account for ... (view more)