GM and Facebook said to be rekindling advertising flame

Back in May, General Motors suddenly ceased advertising on Facebook. No specific details were given, although it was believed that the advertising campaign had little impact. Now the Wall Street Journal reports that GM and Facebook are in talks to resume advertising on the social network. Senior executives have confirmed that both companies are currently in talks.

GM’s global marketing chief, Joel Ewanick, and Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s worldwide head of sales, met at an event in Cannes sometime in June. According to sources familiar with the matter, Facebook is trying to bring GM back as an advertiser, promising to provide better data on how it can turn commercials into cash. It won’t give GM preferential treatment over other advertisers, though.

According to sources, GM hasn’t decided to return to Facebook just yet as it has yet to see any form of advertising effectiveness from the platform. GM has also reportedly been meeting with digital advertising firms in order to gain a better idea of how to market its products for Facebook. GM is said to have spent $10 million on advertising with Facebook, a fraction of its $1.8 billion US ad spending, and also a very small part of Facebook’s $3.7 billion revenue in 2011.

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Flame malware developed by US, Israel to slow Iranian nuclear efforts

It turns out that the massive Flame malware attack last month was a sophisticated computer virus developed by the US and Israel in an effort to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. Citing unnamed Western officials with knowledge of the effort, the Washington Post reported that the attack involved the National Security Agency, the CIA, and Israel’s military as well as the use of the infamous Stuxnet virus.

The Flame virus was first discovered last month when Iran detected a series of cyber attacks on its oil industry. Although the attacks were allegedly carried out by Israel alone, the software used was developed in collaboration with the US, adopting much of the same code as the Stuxnet virus.

The virus is said to be the most sophisticated malware discovered to date. Masquerading as a routine Microsoft software, Flame was able to replicate itself across even highly secure networks, control everyday computer functions, send back secret information, log keystrokes, control computer cameras and microphones, take screen shots, and even extract geolocation data from images.

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Iranian oil industry battled complex Flame virus last month

The Iranian oil industry reported that last month computer technicians battled a complicated computer virus. According to Iranian officials, the virus launched a data siphoning attack on key oil industry networks. To fight the complicated virus officials cut Internet links between the Iranian Oil Ministry, oil rigs, and the hub for the country’s crude oil exports.

This week the Iranian officials have said that the virus that attacked computers in the oil industry was the Flame malware. Security experts have said that Flame is so powerful that not only can it steal data and files from computer networks you can listen in on computer users. While it’s still unknown where Flame originated, suspicious fingers have been pointed at Israel already.

A disruption of the oil industry within Iran could have serious consequences not only for Iran itself, but also for many other countries since Iran is one the world’s top oil exporters. The origins of Flame are unknown, but some experts you the malware is a technological leap and note that it shares the same high-level engineering as Stuxnet. Stuxnet is believed by some to have been the work of Israeli intelligence. So far, Israel has never confirmed or denied involvement with Stuxnet and other viruses.

[via Philly.com]

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