Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook is widening its “bug bounty” program, which was introduced last year as a way to reward researchers who find flaws in its public-facing systems. Now, the company is taking it a step further and offering to reward those able to spot and report holes in Facebook’s corporate network as well. According to a report from Bloomberg, Facebook security response chief Ryan McGeehan said: “If there’s a million-dollar bug, we will pay it out.”

The concept of rewarding hackers for finding vulnerabilities isn’t anything new, and other web giants like Google, Mozilla, HP and even PayPal do it. Web service companies may be able to limit any damage done with by rewarding others to report flaws, but it can still be a risky strategy. Hopes are that outsiders will be willing to actually report bugs to Facebook itself rather than selling them to others.

Facebook’s current retard system offers a minimum of $500 for reports of bugs and the company has already paid a total of $400,000 in rewards to researchers who have spotted them. Researchers must disclose the bug and are eligible for a reward as long as the bug reported could “compromise the integrity of Facebook user data, circumvent the privacy protections of Facebook user data, or enable access to a system within Facebook’s infrastructure.”

You can get the full details for bug reporting on Facebook’s Security Bug Bounty page.

[via Bloomberg]

Facebook expands Security Bug Bounty program to corporate network is written by Elise Moreau & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Social game and Facebook stalwart Zynga has reported a dire financial quarter, casting a pall over casual gaming and leaving investors concerned that Facebook itself will underperform. On the surface, Zynga was doing everything right: daily active users were up year-on-year in Q2 2012 from 59m to 72m, with monthly unique and active users also both up (to 192m and 306m respectively). However, that still wasn’t enough to avoid a net loss of $22.8m, despite online game revenues rising 10-percent year-on-year

Revenues overall were up 19-percent over the same period, to $332.5m, and up 4-percent quarter-on-quarter. However, online game revenues dropped $1.2m between Q1 and Q2 2012, with stock based expense costing $95.5m in Q2, versus a third of that in Q1.

Zynga is now warning of a less fruitful end to 2012, with delays in launching new games and a faster than expected decline in existing titles. Part of the problem, according to Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, was down to changes Facebook made to its site, which caused Zynga’s engagement and bookings fall.

What remains to be seen is how Facebook performs, with the site expected to reveal its own financial results later today. The figures will be the first since Facebook floated its IPO back in May, which saw a record opening but subsequently proved lackluster for investors.

Zynga reports $23m social gaming loss as Facebook worries mount is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Let’s face it, Facebook’s mobile apps aren’t exactly the most stable we’ve seen and based on the various user comments left on the iTunes App Store and the Google Play store, there have been a lot of calls to “fix” it.  That being said, according to sources who revealed to Bloomberg, four former Apple software engineers have been hired and are working on speed and performance enhancements for the iOS version of the Facebook app. The update is expected to roll out in the next couple of months, and that a complete overhaul of the app is in the works and will most likely see a 2013 release. Since there has been no official word from Facebook yet, we suggest taking this with a grain of salt. Either way we will be keeping our eyes peeled for this supposedly improved, faster app, so be sure to check back with us at a later date for more info!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Security flaw discovered in Facebook app for iOS and Android, Find my Facebook Friend hits the App Store,

A Facebook phone did sound like a good idea when it was first mooted, but Facebook does not seem to be in the best of spirits at this point in time. HTC’s ChaCha and Salsa were once touted to be the Facebook phones when they were first announced some time ago, but those never really took off. Well, an anonymous source did mention to Bloomberg that there is a spanking new Facebook branded handset that is in the pipeline, and it will be developed by HTC. The thing is, there are whispers that sometime in the middle of 2013, the Facebook smartphone will finally debut – which is very far away from the original Q3 release this year.

Well, there has been no official announcement of the Facebook phone that was announced by either the social network giant or HTC, so we are working on presumption at this point in time. Should it run, it will most probably be a heavily modified version of the Android operating system. There are also whispers that this particular handset will be powered by Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 platform.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HTC and Facebook rumored to be working on another Facebook smartphone, HTC Status page launched on Facebook,

2012 has been a year filled with stories about Washington trying to regulate the Internet, and now it seems that some of the web’s biggest faces are coming together to do something about it. Google, Facebook, Amazon, and eBay have joined forces to form a new Washington lobbying group called the Internet Association, which aims to “advance public policy solutions that strengthen and protect an open, innovative and free Internet.” The group will be led by former Deputy Staff Director to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Michael Beckerman.

Though we don’t technically know any of the group’s members yet, an anonymous source tells The Washington Post that the four Internet giants listed above are among the Association’s most prominent members. In a statement today, Beckerman said that the Internet’s “decentralized and open model” leads to innovation and job creation, and that we must defend against attempts to “handcuff” the currently-unregulated web. The Internet Association even has its own website up and running today, though there isn’t that much to see there at the moment.

The group will be getting things underway in September, and even though Beckerman has yet to lay out a clear policy plan, we think we have some idea of what it will attempt do in Washington. After all, those four companies have all come out in favor of net neutrality at one point or another, and lately we’ve been seeing Washington trying to pass questionable legislation that would directly affect all of them. Here’s hoping that the Internet Association sticks to its guns when it arrives in Washington later this year, because make no mistake about it – with Facebook, eBay, Google, and Amazon all apparently backing the group, it will have enough sway to essentially get whatever it wants.

Google, Amazon, eBay, Facebook form The Internet Association is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.