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Latin American social networking site Taringa has suffered a database breach that has resulted in the spill of more than 28 million records.

Usernames, hashed passwords (using the weak MD5 algorithm) and personal email addresses have been exposed by the breach. Argentinia-based Taringas breach statement (in Spanish) can be found here. Neither phone numbers nor addresses from Bitcoin wallets associated with a Taringa program were exposed by the breach, according to the Reddit-like social networking site.

LeakBase claims that it has already cracked 94 per cent of password hashes exposed in the latest dumps.

In response, Taringa which has users all over the Spanish-speaking world has applied a password reset as well as urging consumers to review their use of login credentials elsewhere to make sure they are not using the same (now compromised) passwords on other sites.

Although the breach affects a consumer site, it poses a risk for corporates because it opens the door to the well-practised hacker tactic of using the same login credentials to break into more sensitive (webmail, online banking) or corporate accounts. The still widespread practice of password reuse opens the door to such credential stuffing attacks.

A list of top 50 common/worst passwords chosen by Taringa users can be found here.

Andrew Clarke, EMEA director at One Identity, opined: "The reported breach at Taringa highlights some fundamental issues. The fact that an administrative file holding passwords was accessible demonstrates little or no control over privileged accounts.Then the passwords were easily cracked since the company used a weak MD5 (128-bit) algorithm rather than SHA-256.

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Bazinga! Social network Taringa 'fesses up to data breach - The Register

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court directed Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, Microsoft and Yahoo on Monday to respond on how many complaints they received in the last two years for allowing obscene materials like child pornography and rape videos to be circulated through their platforms and action taken by them.

A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit also directed the Centre to give details of cases registered by government authorities against people for circulating sexually exploitative videos of child including pornographic or making obscene representation of a child or children under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act. It granted 10 days for Centre and social networking sites to file the report.

The Court passed the order in a case in which it had taken suo motu cognisance on the basis of a letter written to Chief Justice of India by a Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala, bringing to notice the rape videos being widely circulated on WhatsAap. It had directed the CBI to probe in to the cases and to catch hold of culprits committing rapes and sharing the video through the social networking site.

As the Centre and internet giants had expressed its inability to evolve mechanism to stop uploading of offending videos of rape and child pornography, the apex court had earlier directed top technocrats Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft to come to India and participate in brain storming meeting for 15 days to find out solution to deal with the problem. The committee

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SC asks social networking sites to give number of complaints on ... - Times of India

The Miiverse is dying.

For five years, Nintendo fans have filled up the walls of Nintendo's social media service with simple communications and beautiful hand drawn art. That art often filtered into Wii U and 3DS games, and made for unique experiences while playing Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon online. All of that will end on November 7, 2017 when Nintendo pulls the plug.

"We started the Miiverse service in 2012 along with the launch of the Wii U system because we wanted to provide a space where users could share their feelings about games with each other," Nintendo said in a statement. "Thanks to users' support throughout the years, we think we were able to achieve that goal. We decided to end the service at this time because, among other reasons, many users are shifting to social networking services."

On November 8, Miiverse users will wake up to a world where all their art, conversations, and Luigi associated shitposting will disappear. That is, unless, Tim Miller and the Archive Team can save it. Miller is a web developer and the Archive Team is a loose collective of programmers and archivists interested in preserving the world's digital history. It's most famous project was rescuing large parts of GeoCities from the ashes in 2009. They've teamed up to archive and host the Miiverse before it's gone forever.

"The great art on Miiverse will be lost when it shuts down," Miller announced on Twitter on September 3. "So I'm writing an archiver to try and save it." Two hours later he had archived 30,000 images from the Japanese Miiverse alone.

"Social networks disappearing leaves behind a ton of content," Miller told me via an Archive Team IRC channel. "People have invested a ton of time and effort into giving parts of themselves up to it. Just look at the Splatoon drawing feed. The effort that goes into that art is insane. And Nintendo is going to go 'Fuck you, it's gone.'"

Miller acknowledged that Nintendo is allowing users to save their content by requesting an archive through Miiverse. The company promised to send users a URL containing their content, minus both comments and messages from others, from which they can download their Miiverse account.

Miller thinks he and Archive Team can do better. He wants to save everything. "Art, posts, user data," he said. "Leave no stone unturned. To me, it's all important, I'm not one to judge content. That's for history to judge."

"To me, and I think would go to the rest of Archive Team, it's a part of history and culture," he said. "And saving that for future generations is important. While it may be a failed social network for Nintendo, it's still apart of our culture in some way."

Once the team has collected all the data, Miller plans to create an easily shareable database for everyone to use. He's not interested in creating a site for the content, but he wants all that sweet Splatoon art ready to go in case someone else does.

Check out Miller's archiver at his Github or get involved by jumping into the Archive Team IRC channel.

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The Mission to Archive Nintendo's Dying Social Media Platform - Motherboard

Did you know your teen can go online and get drugs, learn about getting high or find out what other kids are experiencing? According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), teens increasingly use secretive social media sites like Snapchat, where parents dont lurk.

Most of these social networking apps are free and readily available, and most kids are several steps ahead of parents on privacy settings. Still, the DEA has a few tips for helping your child develop the skills to make good online choices.

1. Talk with your child about the implications of online actions.

2. Monitor your childs online activity, and learn about the websites and apps they use.

3. Block inappropriate content with parental features.

4. Enable restrictions on phones and home computers.

5. Learn webspeak, the abbreviated language kids use when texting or chatting.

Basic Webspeak

DOC = Drug of Choice

PAL = Parents are Listening

BRB = Be Right Back

P911 = Parent Alert

420 = Marijuana

KPC = Keeping Parents Clueless

Other important tips include talking with your child about basic social media safety. Remind them that some actions have consequences and, despite what they may think nothing ever truly disappears from the internet.

The rest is here:
Social Media Safety - The Star Democrat

September 1, 2010: Apples new music-focused social network, Ping, ships as part of iTunes 10.Apple says the service will let users discover new music and more easily follow their favorite artists.

Apple previously dabbled in social networking (it was the first significant tech company to advertise on Facebook). But Ping was Apples first attempt at actually launching its own social network.

Aside from following artists, the service let users post thoughts and opinions. Anyone could share details about favorite albums and songs. Plus, they could view concert listings and tell friends about upcoming shows they planned to attend.

iTunes is the number one music community in the world, with over 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries, and now were adding social networking with Ping, Steve Jobs said. With Ping you can follow your favorite artists and friends and join a worldwide conversation with musics most passionate fans.

In some ways, Apple seemed to be perfectly poised to launch a music-focused social network. It had a cool, youthful image, along with brand-loyal customers, wide reach, good standing in the music community and thanks to its success with iTunes and the iPod a history of delivering music-related tech in a way that other companies failed to do.

Early on, Apple experienced significant success with Ping. However, things went downhill after Apple crowed about the 1 million users who signed up in the first 48 hours. Ping lacked Facebook integration due to a (never entirely explained) breakdown in negotiations between the two companies.

Ping wasnt Apple design at its best. It was too fiddly to use, and felt less like a true social network than an attempt to sell music by adding a veneer of interaction on top of the iTunes Music Store.

Ultimately, it became another failed attempt by Apple to enter the internet services space (following its failed MobileMe experiment).

The writing was on the wall for Ping from early 2012, when Tim Cook discussed the services lack of traction at the All Things Digital conference. We tried Ping and the customer voted and said, This isnt something I want to put a lot of energy into,' he said. Some customers love it, but theres not a huge number that do, so will we kill it? I dont know. Ill look at it.

He also noted that Apple didnt need to have a social network. Apple shut down Ping on September 30, 2012.

Today, Apple encourages users to follow their favorite artists on Apple Music. However, much like Ping, these features dont seem to have gained much traction.

Instead, Apple is dabbling in original video content to push Apple Music subscriptions. Efforts range from music documentaries to shows such as Carpool Karaoke: The Series.

Do you remember Ping? Leave your comments below.

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Today in Apple history: Ping social network fails to strike a chord - Cult of Mac