Wow, breaking news from the AP today. It seems the news-gathering agency just found out that social networking sites are insecure, something we’ve known already for at least three months now. What’s even more troubling is that the particulars addressed therein—third-party applications have access to all info posted in your profile—is hardly anything to be concerned about. Big deal, they have access to your data; maybe they’ll use it to serve you ads!

The real problem with Facebook (I don’t use MySpace nor follow it, really) is the opportunity for serious wrongdoing. Like in that issue of 2600, there was step-by-step instructions on how to alter the information of other people’s profiles. Like, I could sign in, and messing around with the behavior of those horribly insecure third-party apps, post messages on people’s walls as someone else. What a quick and easy way to ruin someone’s reputation.

As a security expert, I’m shocked.