Tag Archives: Security

Twitter plans new products and tighter security

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Posted by Tech Paranoia on January 13, 2010 – 2:00 pm
Filed under Security
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Twitter has announced plans to hire 27 professionals to create new products and improve the security of the site.

The increase in headcount is a significant move for the relatively small company, which currently has around 120 staff.

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Twitter co-founder Biz Stone stated in November that 2010 will be the “revenue year” for the company, and the variety of job postings currently hosted on the micro-blogging site suggests that he is not digressing from this strategy.

The new employees will focus on creating Twitter front-end features, and should have experience in advertising applications in line with firm’s new advertising strategy scheduled to be rolled out this year.

Twitter is also issuing calls for a professional who will maintain a platform to help developers in media companies create new integrations with Twitter, as well as for another employee who will encourage media professionals to use the tools.

The other job descriptions display Twitter’s plans to increase the support tools available to users, further develop its application programming interface, develop Twitter’s international front-end and add new search capabilities.

A product marketing manager is also wanted to enhance business users’ understanding of the value of Twitter. According to the description, the work can range from creating “better packaging [of] existing features for businesses, managing all outbound marketing for new monetisation products, [and] analysing customer needs for improved product development”.

Finally, Twitter wants to increase its security team after a number of safety issues hit the headlines last year. The most recent incident involved hackers logging in to Twitter and redirecting users to a site hosted by a group calling itself the ‘Iranian Cyber Army’.

A network and infrastructure security manager will audit and secure systems and create procedures that respond to security issues. The job will involve designing a system that will prevent network intrusions. Meanwhile, an anti-spam software engineer will focus on Twitter’s spam detection system.

Source: v3.co.uk

5 TSA Workers Put on Leave Following Screening Manual Leak

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Posted by Tech Paranoia on December 10, 2009 – 1:00 pm
Filed under Security
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The Department of Homeland Security has placed five transportation security employees on leave following the inadvertent leak of a sensitive manual detailing security procedures for screening passengers at airports.

The workers, all employees of the Transportation Security Administration, were put on administrative leave while an investigation is being conducted into how the security breach occurred, according to the Associated Press.

The TSA manual was posted at a government procurement site last March by a private government contractor and was uncovered by a blogger on Sunday. Parts of the manual were redacted, but the redaction was bungled and allowed anyone to easily uncover the concealed information. But even the unredacted parts of the document were never meant to be seen by the public. The Screening Management Standard Operating Procedure contained this warning: “No part of this record may be disclosed to persons without a ‘need to know.’”

The 93-page manual provided details about which passengers are more likely to be targeted for secondary screening, who is exempt from screening, TSA procedures for screening foreign dignitaries and CIA-escorted passengers, and extensive instructions for calibrating Siemens walk-through metal detectors.

Source: Wired

Employees seek private WiFi in the workplace that leads to security problems

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Posted by Tech Paranoia on December 3, 2009 – 1:00 pm
Filed under Wireless
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Employees implementing their own private WiFi in the workplace are leading to security headaches for administrators.

Pravin Bhagwat, co-founder and CTO of AirTight Networks, claimed that this was a worrying trend, as users have WiFi at home and want the same convenience at work, so are buying their own private devices and plugging them into the private network.

Bhagwat explained that they put the routers under their desk so have their own access and find a connection. “But 50 per cent will use Belkin and Netgear when it should be Trapeze or Cisco, but the IT administrator does not have the tools,” he said.

Source: SC Magazine UK