Aussie "family" social network fails security basics

"Fail, fail, bag of fail!", Family HQ ain't ready for families yet
"Browse everyone's photos? Noice!" View anyone's private information in Family HQ by changing the ID. (Screenshot by Brendan Gordon)

"Browse everyone's photos? Noice!" View anyone's private information in Family HQ by changing the ID. (Screenshot by Brendan Gordon)

A new Australian private social network designed to keep families "safe and connected online" has failed secure web programming 101.

Family HQ was created by Gold Coast husband and wife team Jase and Brooke Farmer, and claims user privacy as its "number one priority".

"Users can be assured of a cyber-safe environment when joining Family HQ due to the processes involved with creating groups and sending invites," Family HQ said in a media release yesterday.

"By basing the creation of groups on a system that does not allow consumers to search for existing members, users are able to control who has access to their personal profile and therefore retain control over their private information."

But within minutes of creating his Family HQ account, web developer Brendan Gordon uncovered a security flaw. He could view another family's private information simply by changing the user ID or media ID in the URL.

"I didn't really try and look for anything," Gordon told CSO Online. "Out of curiosity I tried changing the numbers... Oh, that's not very secure."

Gordon says Family HQ has failed web security basics. Freelance application architect Benno Rice agrees.

"Fail, fail, bag of fail! It's like building Fort Knox and forgetting to put a lock on the front door," Rice told CSO Online.

"It's even worse than that. It's like building a copy of Fort Knox after people have built a dozen of them in the past, and forgetting to put a lock on the front door, even though all the other guys have learned the hard way that you need to do that," he said.

"Why didn't you test that, you pillocks? If you're making privacy one of your things, hire a bloody pentester," Rice said, referring to the penetration testers who independently evaluate the security of computer systems.

Family HQ says the problem has now been fixed.

"This afternoon Family HQ was made aware of a potential security issue with the site. We take such reports very seriously and urgently investigated the issue with our technical team," the company said in a statement.

"The technical team identified a potential security vulnerability that has now been fixed so that customers are assured that their data and images remain private. We regret any concern this may have raised with our customers and urge them to call our helpline if they have any further questions or issues."

Following their four-week beta trial, Family HQ claims 4616 members in 25 countries. The company plans to expand in New Zealand, the UK and Ireland in the next six to nine months, aiming to amass 500,000 members by the end of 2012.

Contact Stilgherrian at Stil@stilgherrian.com or follow him on Twitter at @stilgherrian

Tags: Family HQ, security, social media, social networking

Comments

1

Brian

Tue 11/10/2011 - 16:36

That reminds me of how facebook used to work in the old days. The ol' swap the id number trick. Good times.

2

Craig

Wed 19/10/2011 - 02:06

Fixing security issues when they are flagged is not really a sign of good security management.

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Security Awareness Tip
Software security company www.clearswift.com gives some advice this holiday season to make sure employees don’t end up on Santa’s naughty list!


At a fundamental business level, social media is a useful additional tool for communicating and collaborating with customers, colleagues and new business prospects. From an HR point of view, the social web is not only useful for recruitment but also as a knowledge network. At an employee level, social media is changing the way we work: Employees increasingly expect to be able to access personal technology and services in the workplace. As the lines between work and home life blur, staff are looking for greater flexibility in their roles; working from home is an increasing trend, but so too is ‘home-ing from work’, where staff expect to be able to perform personal tasks at work.

But social media brings risk and reward to business in equal measure. Information security is a key concern: Many organisations view social media channels as yet another route along which sensitive data can escape from the business, whether accidentally or maliciously. On top of this, senior management may be concerned about the amount of time employees spend on social networks.

This cultural shift raises new questions about trust in the workplace, the balance of power in employer / employee relationship and levels of control over people and content.


Organisations using content and web security technology can manage the way their staff use email and the internet without having to resort to a default position of mistrust. With a whopping third of ANZ employers completely blocking social media access at work, there’s a real danger of throwing the benefits of collaboration out with the risks.


It doesn’t have to be that way.

Trust breeds responsibility: People underestimate the amount of company time they spend on personal browsing. Allow staff to view their own web usage and foster more responsible behaviour without undermining trust.


Know limits: Set clear limits on personal surfing and communicate them to users. Alert them when they are approaching their limit. Help your people to play by the rules.


Share the load: Spread responsibility for usage reporting among managers and department heads so everyone gets to see how their usage impacts on the rest of the organisation. This also gives managers greater control and visibility into usage.


Need to know: Yes, you need reports and visibility. What you don’t need is employee data becoming common knowledge. Access control means reporting can be adjusted on a need-to-know basis.


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