facebook: security case study اللى خالع راسه يغطيها

Two days ago, when opening my facebook in the morning, i found a nice video posted by a friend about someone called marc proposing to his fiancee miriam.
WOWWW, so romantic, and by the end of the day all my profile page was one repeated post, everyone reposted the video.
number of people watched the video on youtube jumped from 9000 to 36000 in two days.
my sister, my friend Sally (which is more like an internet investigator then a simple user) and I have a question: did they ever get married?
so my friend an I spent sometime yesterday digging the facebook. and we get our answer.
BUT what this experience reveals is more then a simple answer to a question.
after one hour of digging facebook we know all of this about marc and miriam:
1- his full name: marc wassim (from the profile)
2- her full name: miriam karam (from the profile)
3- date of proposal: 3/2009 (from the video)
4- date of engagment party: 5/2009 (from the video)
5- date of wedding: 10/2010 (from the comment)
6- marc's work place: Dubai (from the video and comment)
7- their friends names (from the video)
8- marc's hobby: photography (from the comment)
9- marc's camera (from the comment)
10- scenes from his house (from the video)
11- some of his family members (from the video)
and more
how we did that: just by digging facebook profiles
marc and miriam, both set the maximum security measures for their profiles, all the personal info are hidden, no pictures were shared, ... etc
but there was one album that was for public view, this was some photos taken by marc practicing his hobby.
just by reading the comments, we knew all of this and more.
are these information too much to know about someone you don't even know? OF COURSE
just two small steps away from hacking his credit card number :)
and remind you, all these information were revealed just by going from one facebook page to another, just unexperienced simple users actions. no software, no hacking ... nothing
did marc expect this or intend to do it? of course not

but this exactly what is called social hacking: which hacking to someone's vital information using what you know about him/her: as in expecting his password to be his date of birth, his wedding date or his kid's birthday and so on

the danger i'm talking about is not silly amateur stealling girls pictures to photoshped it with naked body, i'm talking about the more deep danger: HACKING to your life

and this all starts with a simple youtube video

social media users (facebook, myspace, ... etc) now have to choose between protecting their security or enjoying the magical concept of SHARING

can't do both, because there are no 100% security measures online, it's a lie no matter what the people of facebook say

so now before sharing anything online ask yourself this question: how much information about me will this reveals?

لا أملك جناحا لأطير

أنا لا اظفر بالراحة.
أنا ظامئ إلى الأشیاء البعیدة المنال.
إن روحي تهفو ، تواقةً ، إلى لمس طرف المدى المظلم.
إیه أیها المجهول البعید وراء الأفق ، یا للنداء الموجع المنساب من نایك.
أنا أنسى ، أنسى دوما أنني لا أملك جناحا لأطير ،
وأنني مقید دوما بهذا المكان.
إنني مت قد الشوق ، یقظان ، أنا غریب في أرضٍ عجیبة.
إن زفراتك تتناهى إلي ، لتهمس في أذني أملا مستحیلا .
إن صوتك یعرفه قلبي كما لو كان قلبه.
أیها المجهول البعید ، یا للنداء الموجع المنساب من نایك!
أنا أنسى ، أنسى دوما أنني لا أعرف الطریق وأنني
لا أمتلك جوادا مجنحا .
أنا لا أظفر بالطمأنینة.
أنا شارد ، أهیم في قلبي.
في الضباب المشمس ، من الساعات الضجرة ، ما
أبهى مرآك العظیم یتجل ى في زرقة السماء!
أیها المجهول البعید ، یا للنداء الموجع المنساب من نایك!
إنني أنسى ، أنسى دوما ، أن الأبواب كل ها موصدة
في البیت الذي أفزع فیه إلى وحدتي.

طاغور

pencil, logo and toys

Months ago, I thought i lost my Alba watch. not just a watch but the watch i bought with my first salary. I was TERRIBLY sad, some people made jokes about it, others didn't care but one person said: "I know what it means" ..... Merci mariam.

The thing i was trying to explain to everyone is that it's not about the watch but about the memory of my first salary and what that meant to me then.

this week another one of the flock left the country, again it jumps to my mind. what kind of stuff she'll take to save her memories?

it's something not many people share actually, not everyone connect items with memories, those people are the ones that find it so easily to throw away old stuff, but for us the memories/stuff characters we can't.

Looking deep into my stuff, i found those 3 things that i keep for more then a decade: a pencil, school logo, toys.

WHY?

The pencil is the one I used in the architecture class (عمارة) in Thanaweya Amaa 0.7mm. at this point i had a dream to be an engineer, and of course it didn't happen. in the class, the architecture teacher said to me over and over how great my drawings are, of course he said completly the opposite when he saw my artistic draws (فنون) :(

this pencil represents the dream, the hopes for the future that i had one day. this pencil says to me i'm not an engineer but i can make a great architecture sketchs after all. in a way i'm an artist even if the system says i'm not.

I liked the architecture class very much, because of what i was during it. i was doing something i like very much, creating dreams, actually enjoying having a pencil and ruler in my hands and for seconds i was thinking i'm the greatest architecture on earth.

the school logo is there not because i love my school, NO i hate school, always had and always will. but i keep the logo because it represents the education that i'm thankfull for having. education helps to define the personality, and i had a great education, which gave me better chances then usual, I'm proud of being in a good school and had a good education. One of the first things Obama said to his people after being president is go back to school, he addressed the mothers at home asking them to go back to school to get an education to expand their opportunities in life.

the toys are the things that remind me of my best friend which i can't see, be with or talk to anymore, simply because she is dead. she bought those stuff so i would put it on my desk, things that teenage girls friends do, buying stuff that maybe unnecssary or unimportant and sometimes not even usefull but just for the sake of buying something to the friends. this stuff represents the memories of friendship, real deep innocent friendship, i'll never forget. RIP my friend.

but what if an item of those lost or broke, did this mean i'll lose the memory? will i forget my friend, my school or even my dreams?

the staight answer is NO, nothing will be forgetten BUT i'll be sad of course to loose this items.

what about you, do you connect your memories to items?

Procrastination

المرايا

قلت أبص ف المرايا
يمكن أكون إحلويت..
فضلت داير أبص
مخلتش..
ولا مرايا ف البيت..
فى الحمام ف الأوضة ف دولاب..
أو متعلقة ع الحيط..
شفت..
سكت شوية..
وبعدين اتخضيت..
معقول..
معقول أنا قضيت العمر ده كله..
وزى ما رحت
زى ما جيت..
معقول أنا عمرى ما فكرت..
ولا اتغيرت..
ولا حبيت..
وإزاى ساكت على روحى ده كله..
وليه استنيت..؟!
يا ريتنى ما كان عندى مرايا..
ويا ريتنى ما بصيت..
على سلامة فى المصرى اليوم

you don't like my jokes?

PLEASE watch the movie first: it's only 30seconds


Was it funny? NOOO
but it's funny for some (the intel people)
how many times, you said something thought it's funny and no one laughed, because they didn't get it OR they didn't think it's funny?
well, it happens a lot to me
It's so mysterious how the human mind works, although we all see same objects, everyone of us interpreted it differently, sometimes to the extremes.
yet we all humans, but we never all agree on one thing, no matter how beautiful it's: flower, sun, babies laughs, the drop of a water on very gentle green leave .....
for someone somewhere there's a reason to hate this stuff: can you blame an Asthma patient for hating flowers or pets? (for example)
we have to admit we are different, that every person is a unique biological system :)
but then what?
how we should deal with our differences?
i see only 2 ways:
First: to accept the individual differences and see it as a enrichment to the group, use it, to expand the group benefits
OR
Second: to set a majority rule and eliminate all the other different rules
which is very much what is happening to the society NOW
I'm deeply sad to see the society turns to a MONOvoice
that's bad
we don't all laughs for the same jokes, like same music, read the same articles, believe in the same believes, WE ARE different.
if i'm a geek don't laugh at me because you are not, if i'm a christian don't ask me to wear what you wear because that what you think is right, if i'm a girl don't just assume that i can't think or drive just because you have different hormones, .....
and the list can go on for pages
Conclusion: if you don't like my jokes, it's not because it's bad, it's simply different.

changing the hardware not the software

my credit card expired and i went to the bank to get the new one

it was a piece of cake, it only took me seconds to get my new one

HONESTLY

but i woke up from this dream when i start to using it, it doesn't work

i went back to the nice young smiling lady to tell her: it doesn't work, is there something that should be done to activate it or something?

she: yes of course, you should call the number wrote on the enveloppe, oh my god, didn't i tell you that??

me: no you didn't

she: well i'm sorry, you should call this number first to activate the card

me: why can't you activate it now using your computer to get to the system

she: i'm sorry i can't, well you know when you call you'll have to answer some private questions, so i can't do it for you

OMG: private!!!! how a bank ask private information more then what's already there, the bank is the only establishment in the world that know exactly where do you live, how much money you have, your the security number, your date of birth, place of birth, telephone numberssss, sometimes your relatives......?

what more private can it be?

i said to myself may be the questions will be the kind of: your first boyfriend's name, have you ever been kissed, what flavor of ice cream you prefer?

any way, i tried to call this 5 digital number and as expected it's has this unsuportable lady of:

جميع عملاؤنا مشغولون الآن بخدمة عملاء أخرين

so i waited .. waited .. redialed .. waited .. waited

and finally someone answered and asked me 3 questions:

1- number of the card

2- account

3- birth date

and then he said: the card is activate now, you can use in 2 hours

WHAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that is it???

what was the private questions, i missed it: the card number or my birth date???

this information are already there on every bank form, the man didn't even ask for my name

can someone please explains to me the necessity of this call

the bank had hired people to ask the clients for their birth dates?? total waste of money and time

i guess some genius said that banks in Europe use a 5 digital phone number to offer more services to the clients and we should do that, obviously they did it without thinking about the usability of the process

AS a writer i like very much (Soliman Gouda) wrote once in almasry alyoum that the government always change the hardware only and not the software

meaning they rebuild the offices, install computers and high tech devices but the procedures are the exact same thing

an obvious example is (elbosta), they still use the paper cards that are there since the beginning of the millennium and then they check the account on the computer, and 70% of the time the network is down

Waste of time and money or as gouda said: changing the hardware not the software

talk shows scarecrow

I always find dealing with any governmental department a nightmare

sometimes things turned out good and i finish my paper in a quick decent amount of time and sometime i just gave up and leave

BUT some people go to the extreme behavior and give the employees what they deserve: HARD TIME

i was in a place to issue a certificate, a lady enter the facility and started to argue with 2 staff women about her papers, they (so calmly) told her that they can do nothing for her, and that her paper was already processed and stop coming asking about it

what she did was BOLD

she said: OK, i'll shoot you with my mobile and send it to the minister and all the talk shows.

and she did; she took her mobile and opened the camera and shoot everyone in the office and said in a loud voice those people refused to finish my papers.

SO guess what happened?

the office principal called the head of security and told him to confiscate the mobile, the woman refused, so they negotiate ..........

the head of security pushed the offices staff to finish her papers and in return she'll delete the movie she recorded on her mobile.

and they did

SO people now in any governmental office have a scarecrow called TALK SHOW.

what the woman did was bold in my judgment and it shows the great effects of the stupid (my opinion) talk shows in the community

they weren't intimidate when she said she'll file a complain to the minister, but when she said she'll send the movie to the shows

that's an enormous problem because, the talk show in a way represent the society supervision but the truth is that non of the talk show hosts are honest or fair when discussing any issue (ALL OF THEM)

so should we giving the monster the tools to destroy us? or start first taming it?

AVATAR: wow

I went to see the avatar with a friend and yes it worth's the buzz around it.
the idea of watching a 3D movie is awesome, the small butterflies, leaves, .... flying out of the screen approaching to you is magical
but what i want to talk about is the concept of the movie itself
the movie is about a planet filled with a precious item, the US army want it, so they take it
even if this means killing the planet population and ruining the planet environment and system, that's why some Arabs think it's a metaphor about Iraq
but the director is working on this movie for a 12 years, long before the 9/11
was he so wise to read the future? or was he just telling a story?
no one can answer this but James Cameron himself
the movie forced us to think about a specific question: where's my limit to benefit from a natural source? are you valid because you are strong or because you are right?

The Power of Words

Wow
very artistic, send a strong message in an excellent way