Here is a disturbing news report about a web technology that many of us use every day (AP - Hackers target Google Gadgets):
One of the biggest problems with the so-called Web 2.0 movement has been its encouragement of oversharing - which often means underestimating security risks. Adding doodads of varying quality to a home page can add a lot of pizazz, but can also be fraught with danger, since they can open a door for hackers.
It's a threat even for the biggest Web companies, including Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG), whose "gadgets" - little programs like calendars or daily photo feeds that users can implant onto their personalized Google home pages - are increasingly juicy targets for hackers, two security researchers said Wednesday.
How is the average user of Google to know if a gadget has been hacked? Google needs to come up with some kind of Good Housekeeping seal of approval to let users know that gadgets have been scanned and are safe. Perhaps they can market their service and license their seal to other sites and social networking services (like Facebook) so that we can know when widgets are safe to install.
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