Global Security, Privacy, & Risk Management

“Bow-Chicka-Bow-Wow!” – Privacy Failure of Photobucket Can Make You a Porn Star! August 13, 2012

For those who like to use the popular photo sharing site Photobucket to share (ahem)..”private” pictures may want to take action immediately.  According to an article on CNN, a privacy flaw in the way Photobucket allows users to share photos resulted in hackers gaining access to numerous R rated and even explicit photos of users.  Photobucket allows users to share photos using direct links.  This means that even if the user does not intend to share a photo, if a person can deduce the URL then the unencrypted file can be directly accessed.   This is a hack known as “Fuscking” and it has been used to access numerous files.  According to Photobucket spokesman David Toner: “is a very rare occurrence that has affected only a small number of Photobucket’s users,”While I am sure that is little consolation to those who have had their personal pictures made public, notice that what Photobucked did NOT say.  He said that the publishing of pictures is a “…very rare occurrence..”He did not say that the vulnerability has been fixed or that it can be prevented.  According to Mr. Fusker, it appears that because only a few (statistically speaking) users have been effected, we should not be worried?  The best advice is by Ethan Wall, a social media attorney in Miami..“What you say and do on social media can be used against you and it can be found.  If you don’t want someone else to see it, don’t post it.”