Facebook Gives Death a Makeover

Small but significant number of cases vulnerable

(NEWSER) - Oops. Now that millions of people have downloaded encrypted information like credit card and bank account numbers onto the Internet, a team of mathematicians and cryptographers have located a crucial flaw in online encryption. The flaw concerns the way the system generates random numbers to create a code critical to protecting digital information. In the system, randomly-generated prime numbers are used to create a public "key," which is used in a formula to encrypt information. The original, randomly generated numbers are kept secret. But in a small but significant number of cases, the random-number key generation system failed to work properly. The researchers found in certain cases that numbers were not truly random, making it possible to determine the secret keys used to generate the public key. The problem can only be fixed by software and Internet operations, not consumers. More»

Gizmos proliferate amid concerns on distracted driving

(NEWSER) - Imagine cruising down the highway at 65mph while checking tweets, buying movie tickets online, or booking reservations at a restaurant. This scenario is the not-too-distant future of driving, reports the Wall Street Journal , as auto manufacturers seek to design an innovative "connected car" full of Internet-accessible gadgetry. The push for a tech-infused car comes as a national push for rules banning phones in cars seems to be fizzling out and automakers look to entice the youth demographic. More»

Court threatens to come down on firms 'like China'

(NEWSER) - A strongly-worded directive from an Indian court, threatening to crack down on websites "like China," has pushed Google and Facebook to bar some content on Indian domains, Reuters reports. Some 19 other companies have also been asked to block material considered offensive to Hindus, Muslims, and Christians following a court case. The companies haven't yet given details of what was removed. More»

A minority makes the experience more rewarding for the majority: Study

(NEWSER) - This might help explain why Facebook is closing in on 900 million users: Most people "receive more from their Facebook friends than they give," concludes a new Pew study . Among the findings from the one-month analysis:

• 40% of users made a friend request in the one-month period, but 63% received a request themselves
• Users hit the like button 14 times on friends' content, but received 20 likes on their own content in the same span
• 12% tagged a pal in a photo, but 35% were tagged by others

Users shatter Guinness World Record

(NEWSER) - A team of about 100 Facebook pals has collaborated to comment more than a million times on a post—setting an official Guinness record, KTXL-TV reports. The initial post was made in October in the Facebook group Ffgpioneers/gwr/attempt . (It was an innocuous post made just for this purpose.) To garner 1,001,619 comments (and counting), each user had to post some 9,300 times on average, the Huffington Post notes. The previous record was 529,335. "I'm no spring chicken anymore and I really haven’t done anything phenomenal," one of the posters said. Now she has. More»