Reddit “hacked”!

Reddit – “hacked”

Reddit member info was compromised in June this year. Two data-sets were accessed: the first from 2007 containing account details and all public and private posts between 2005 and May 2007; and the second included logs and databases linked to Reddit’s daily digest emails, which was accessed between 3 and 17 June this year. The data includes usernames and email addresses linked to those accounts.

Reddit they are contacting members who may have been affected.  But the way these stories go, it will be revealed soon that everyone’s data has been leaked, so all Reddit members should probably reset their passwords.

And if you are one of the millions of people who re-use user-names and passwords over multiple sites, you’d better change your login info on all accounts.  This time do it properly, with a password manager.  Better late than never, eh!

The Reddit system was compromised through former employee accounts which were “protected” with SMS-based two-factor authentication.

SMS-based two-factor authentication is more secure than using a password alone.  But it is relatively easy to break through. For instance, an attacker can transfer a phone number by supplying an address, last 4 digits of a social security number and perhaps a credit card – exactly the type of data that is widely available on the dark web thanks to large database breaches like Equifax.

Free calls, free texts, free everything

I wrote about Globfone recently, but here it is again.  This time I’m writing a dedicated review, as it’s a blinding service and deserves all the publicity it can get!

Globfone.com offers free calls, free SMS, free p2p video calls and free p2p file sharing.  The service is all free, is planned to remain free, no registration or subscription required, the service is sustained completely by ads and sponsors.

On their site they describe their “Free Online Phone Project”:

The idea behind Globfone is to deliver telecommunication services like SMS and international calls for free to users across the globe. At Globfone, we firmly believe that there is ‘Love in Sharing’, therefore we are currently seeking to increase our coverage to more than 90% of major International GSM networks that we currently cover. Globfone WEB is a completely FREE to use internet service that allows you to make free phone calls, send free text messages, make free video calls and a free P2P file sharing service to all your friends and family around the world. This service works without For FREE! And you don’t have to install any special software or go through long registration process – Globfone is completely SAFE and EASY to use.

Their worldwide coverage includes 91% of mobile networks for SMS and 96% for calls.

Most of my experience with Globfone is the SMS service.  It is possible to send messages from just about anywhere in the world, to just about anywhere in the world.  And Globfone claims that it is possible to send texts to the same number repeatedly in close succession so as to have conversations via SMS.  This is something that most services don’t allow, reportedly to prevent spam.  But with Globfone, you can.  Imagine that you have a mobile phone but no credit or messages left from your allowance.  You can text message your friend, she can reply by texting your phone, and then you can reply immediately via Globfone, so carry on a text conversation.   Afreesms.com doesn’t allow this, nor does any other service I have come across in my years of checking out these kinds of sites.  This is something that Globfone is rightly proud of.

As well  as laptops and desktop computers, you can also send SMS from most smartphones.  And there is an app – Globfone SMS Messenger – for Android and iOS.

The free calls is a VoIP service that requires no registration, something you rarely find.  This service, as well as the SMS, there is an upper limit to the number of free calls and SMSes available to a single IP address during a 24 hour period.  When that limit is reached, the user is alerted and asked to wait 24 hours before using the service again.  And there is also a call-specific time limit: when you make a call, you are shown a countdown representing how much time you have left on that call.  The call-specific time limit is a pain in the ass – it seems you can’t make calls longer than a minute – but remember this service is free and you’re not likely to find better.

A good use of the free call service is to find your phone – if you’ve mislaid it somewhere in your home you can use Globfone to call it, the ringtone then helps you locate your handset.  Handy, and unaffected by the call time limit as you don’t need to answer the phone.

The webphone service is truly cross-platform as all you need is a modern browser  – it uses multiple different SIP/media engines including a Java VoIP engine – runs in all java enabled browsers; WebRTC – runs in all modern browsers; and Flash VoIP – for compatibility with some old browsers.  You also need to enable speakers and microphone, and optionally headphones.  And that’s it: as long as your computer has that, you can use the webphone service.  If you have problems, visit this webpage.

You can make free calls from most modern smartphones, but may experience difficulties using older mobile platforms, like Symbian OS.   If your mobile browser doesn’t support Java, Globfone’s FAQ advises using its mobile beta app – but I couldn’t find a link to that app.

I haven’t used the p2p services – file-sharing and video calls.  These services are peer-to-peer, meaning a direct connection is made between 2 computers, rather than using phone networks.  If any readers have experience of these Globfone services, please tell us about it in Comments.

The services are financed by ads and sponsorship.  In the FAQs, if you want to donate to Globfone or support it in any way, it suggests you “like” Globfone in social media, or place a link to the site in your blog.  So that’s what I’m doing here.  And look: here’s the link to Globfone!

Darknet Part 1: What is the darknet and why should I care?

 

Welcome to Part 1 of my guide to the Darknet.  Well, I say “mine” but it’s actually by many people.  And, just so you all know I’m not trying to pass off this guide as my own words, I’m going to show the words actually coming out of their true creators’ mouths, thanks to the miracle of video streaming over the internet! Thanks be to Youtube,eh!!

Okay, part 1 of this series is a primer on the Deep Web and the Darknet.  It’s a TEDx talk by Alex Winter (of Bill & Ted fame), entitled “The Darknet isn’t what you think”.  There are some misconception about what illegal services were available through the Silk Road website.  For instance child pornography was banned.  Stolen goods weren’t allowed.  Ads for contract killers weren’t allowed.

Anyway, check out the vid.  Enjoy!

Next time: A film about the rise and fall of the Silk Road

 

How to search the internet 1: the history of search

This is the first part of my guide to web search; the second part is here; part 3 is here. Part 4 is here.

The first search engine is widely considered to be Archie: a tool for indexing FTP archives which enabled users to locate resources. Its first implementation was written in 1990 by Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and J. Peter Deutsch, then students at McGill University in Montreal. It started off as basic lists of files that were accessed using the Unix command grep. Later, more efficient front- and back-ends were developed, and the system spread from a local tool, to a network-wide resource, to a popular service available from multiple sites around the Internet. The archie servers could be accessed in various ways: by use of a local client; by telnet; by email; and later through the World Wide Web. As the web became more widespread, its simpler interface made archie obselete, and now there are very few archie servers to be found on the internet. Wikipedia mentions an archie gateway still up in Poland; maybe that’s the last one?

Then there was Gopher – a protocol for distributing, searching, and retrieving documents over the Internet, dating from about 1991 and used throughout the 1990s. It was a predecessor of, then for a while an alternative to the World Wide Web. Wikipedia describes it as:

a TCP/IP Application layer protocol designed for distributing, searching, and retrieving documents over the Internet, and was a predecessor, and later, an alternative to the World Wide Web. The protocol offers some features not natively supported by the Web and imposes a much stronger hierarchy on information stored on it. Its text menu interface is well-suited to computing environments that rely heavily on remote computer terminals, common in universities at the time of its creation in 1991 until 1993.

Gopher was called Gopher for 3 reasons:

1. Users instruct it to “go for” information;
2. It does so through a web of menu items allegedly analogous to gopher holes;
3. It was developed at the University of Minnesota, whose sports teams are the “Golden Gophers”.

Its user interface (text, based on menus) suited the computer environment of the 1990s – mostly command-line interface on remote terminals. But by the late 90s, as graphical interfaces to the internet became more common (thanks to web browsers like Mosaic, whose integration of text and images was much more user-friendly than Gopher’s text-menu approach) Gopher was in decline. Although it still exists on the internet, it is used mostly for nostalgic reasons.

As the web became ubiquitous, and huge numbers of websites were created, organisations began to collate lists of these sites into directories. Yahoo, Lycos and the Open Directory are examples. These directories listed sites in categories by content: for instance, if you were looking for a particular site about photography, you would look through Yahoo’s list of photographic sites.

But as the web grew ever bigger, it seemed to many people that directories became too unwieldy: if you’re looking for a site about a particular photographer and you’re confronted with a list of 50,000 sites, you’ll probably give up in despair. This is where the modern search engine comes in – the likes of Google and Bing. We’ll get into all that in the next instalment of this little guide to internet search.

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