Not us. (Photo: Naked Security)

Welcome to the big leagues, Snapchat! This week the photo-sharing app experienced a startup Bar Mitzvah, of sorts, when it was inundated with its first major spam attack.

Unsuspecting users received an explicit snap from someone calling herself named “Honey.Crush9,” inviting them to a sexy Skype conversation. Anyone foolish enough to take the bait ended up with—surprise, surprise!—malware. 

Naked Security reports that the spammers exploited a little-known loophole on Snapchat’s app that allows anyone to send you pictures—even if you haven’t added them to your authorized friends list. Here's how you fix it:

According to Snapchat's FAQ, you can change this setting. It tells users to tap the camera icon as if you are going to take a picture, then, tap the square button on the bottom right corner of the screen. Select "Settings", go to "Who can send me snaps...", and select "My Friends" instead of "Everyone."

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, fresh off bragging about the app’s explosive growth, apologized for the debacle on the company's blog. Acknowledging that spammers "totally suck," Mr. Spiegel wrote that the engineering team quickly halted the problem from spreading further by stopping new accounts from being created.

Poor Mr. Spiegel—guess a few nudes sneak onto his app, after all.

(Photo: ScreenRant)

Prolific startup investor and jOBS star Ashton Kutcher has news for everyone: he's a total brainiac, not unlike Steve Jobs! The whole time he was playing dumb bro characters in sitcoms like That 70's Show and Two and a Half Men and tweeting clueless riffs on sensitive news stories, he was actually acting.

In real life Mr. Kutcher enjoys conversations about stuff like "circular polarization versus vertical polarization," and he's an early investor in several successful startups, including Skype and Airbnb. "When it comes to the Internet, there's no beating Ashton," his investment partner (and Madonna's manager) Guy Oseary told Elle.

Mr. Kutcher also recently upped his geek cred: Elle reports that he became the 500th person to put a $20,000 deposit down for a space voyage on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo. We hope he takes the opportunity to film a Dude Where’s My Spaceship sequel and laugh (ironically) all the way to the bank.

This is a picture of a romantic Skype cake we found on the Internet. (Photo: bridalwave.tv

The Internet's already disrupted meeting and mating; why not shake up the institution of the wedding itself? The New York Times ventured out to Jackson Heights to watch an American citizen marry a man in Bangladesh via Skype. It's apparently an increasingly common practice among some immigrant communities, as Islam in particular gives it the a-okay and it greatly simplifies the process of uniting forever with someone from the Old Country.

Hey, that's one way to avoid a pricey New York City wedding (which average a heart-stopping $65,824 as of 2012), and who wants the bother of a destination wedding anyway?

The Times says:

“After all these advancements in technology and all kinds of telecommunication tools, scholars came to the conclusion that it is acceptable,” said the imam Shamsi Ali, of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens.

“Skype is making it easier,” he added. “These days you have Google Hangout, too.”

Expect this to appear in one of those treacly Google Hangout ads in 3, 2...

This does present a bit of a headache for immigration officials, who already spend plenty of time separating would-be Gérard Depardieus and Andie MacDowells. The  Times talked to one matchmaker who won't do them anymore, after seeing too many people jilted by green-card seekers. There are also fears the practice could facilitate sex trafficking.

Also, only a few states here in the U.S. allow the practice (the marriages where one partner's abroad technically take place in the other country), so don't start booking any World of Warcraft caterers just yet.

Space! (Photo: NASA)

Tim Cook's not sure where you all got the idea he's robotic. [Bloomberg Businessweek]

He also confirmed Apple is bringing some manufacturing back to the U.S. No guarantees how much, though. [Bloomberg News]

Get psyched for Skype voice messages. [The Verge]

Hey Best Buy (and all other mega corporations): Maybe don't assume you can just rip off a startup's proprietary technology? [Redeye VC]

International fugitive John McAfee has been apprehended in Guatemala, reportedly for entering the country illegally. No word on whether the Vice guys are screwed. [New York Times]

Michael Arrington is very peeved at Instagram pulling Twitter integration. So peeved he felt it necessary to slap on a Winnie the Pooh hat and write a rant. [TechCrunch]

This is what the earth looks like at night. [NASA]

Smile, Sarah! (Photo: Terminator Wikia)

Good news for those of you kept awake at night by terrible apocalyptic visions and/or whose name is Sarah Connor: The BBC reports that the University of Cambridge is taking up the study of the existential risks posed by new technologies. Think killer AIs with indestructible robot bodies.

One of organizers is Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn, along with philosopher Huw Price and astrophysicist Martin Rees. What, the English professors were all busy?

The BBC helpfully adds that, "Fears that machines may take over have been central to the plot of some of the most popular science fiction films" and proceeds to explain the example of Skynet which "gained self-awareness and fought back after first being developed by the US military."

But the Cambridge Project for Existential Risk won't be limiting its sights to scenarios suggested by the Terminator franchise. The founders are also worried about a wide range of technological developments that could "soon pose new, extinction-level risks to our species as a whole." Think everything from massive climate change to nanotechnology.

The project's mission statement argues that "these issues require a great deal more scientific investigation than they presently receive," adding:

The seriousness of these risks is difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause for concern, given how much is at stake.

Q.E.D, sir.

The project should open its doors sometime early next year, as the BBC drolly notes, "survival of the human race permitting." That leaves plenty of time for all the Singularitarians to buy plane tickets.

Mr. Dickerson. (Twitter.com)

Worst nightmare for workday Skype gossipers: It appears until very recently there was a vulnerability that made it possible for anyone who knows your email to hijack your account. UPDATED: Skype says it's been resolved. [TNW]

Do you fret about the amount of info you've shared with Facebook? Think for a minute about your Google Search history taken as a whole, and you'll have a panic attack.  [Buzzfeed]

As we head into the holidays, an update from Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson reveals that the community is now 20 million users strong and did more than $700 million in sales in 2012. By the end of the year, total all-time marketplace sales will surpass 100 million products. The company is also doing a holiday popup shop in Soho this year--right next to Dior. Fancy! [Etsy]

Are startups funded in the early-stage investing boom starting to run out of money? [Business Insider]

Judging from this video about the Jawbone UP, wearable computing requires a whole lot of trial and error in the design process. [Fuse Project]

(Photo: Pro Hacking Tricks)

Hackers are spreading new malware attacks via Skype contact lists. Unassuming Skype users are lured into clicking on infected URLS from anxiety-inducing messages like, "lol is that you?" only to find their computer infected by a variation of the Dorkbot worm.

Don't let the funny name fool you. Dorkbot has a nasty mission. Infected computers may end up locked down and held for ransom:

[Dorkbot] appears to initiate large scale click-fraud activity on each compromised machine as well as recruiting it into a botnet. The infection will subsequently install a ransomware variant locking the user out of their machine, informing them that their files have been encrypted and that they will be subsequently deleted unless the unfortunate victim surrenders a $200 fine within 48 hours.

Skype users should use common sense if they receive one of these messages. Chances are, if you receive a message from your sixty-something mom that says, "lol wtf is that you in that pic dood," mom's account has been hacked.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Skype gave us a statement regarding the the spread of malicious messages:

Skype takes the user experience very seriously, particularly when it comes to security. We are aware of this malicious activity and are working quickly to mitigate its impact. We strongly recommend upgrading to the newest Skype version and applying updated security features on your computer. Additionally, following links – even when from your contacts – that look strange or are unexpected is not advisable.

(Photo: Crunchbase)

Thrive Capital, the New York-based venture capital firm helmed by 26-year-old Josh Kushner*, announced today that it has successfully raised a $150 million fund for early and later stage startups. The news comes almost a year to the day after Thrive announced a $40 million raise from investors like Princeton University. The fresh $150 million comes from a slew of some of the same investors, including Princeton, Wellcome Trust and Hall Capital Partners.

Thrive has backed many of New York's recent notable startup exits. The firm was an investor in Instagram, purchased by Facebook for $1 billion; Hot Potato, also purchased by Facebook for around $10 million; and GroupMe, purchased by Skype for more than $50 million.

The current Thrive portfolio reads like a who's who in New York tech: the company is also an investor in Pinterest competitor The Fancy, flash sales site Fab and e-commerce glasses hub Warby Parker.

“Many see the way the Internet has already transformed our daily lives and conclude that most of the change that was going to happen already has.” Mr. Kushner told The New York Times. “I am of the belief that it is only the beginning.”

*Disclosure: Thrive Capital is invested in several start-up companies. Josh Kushner, a Thrive principal, is also part-owner of Observer Media Group, which owns Betabeat. Betabeat has no affiliation with Thrive Capital and the views expressed in Betabeat do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Thrive Capital or its principals.

Skype's hairy eyeball only works in China.

Skype has taken to its company blog to reassure users that recent structural changes do not mean Skype has enabled snooping capabilities for itself or The Authorities. In a post titled, "What Does Skype's Architecture Do?" Skype corporate vice president Mark Gillett did his best to refute the main allegations  that have piled up since Skype was purchased by Microsoft.  According to Mr. Gillett, worries that Skype's changes were made to enable spying are pure paranoia:

It has been suggested that Skype has recently changed its posture and policies with regard to law enforcement.

False.

The move to supernodes was not intended to facilitate greater law enforcement access to our users' communications. Skype has had a team of Skype employees to respond to legal demands and requests from law enforcement since 2005. While we are focused on building the best possible products and experiences for our users, we also fundamentally believe that making a great product experience also means we must act responsibly and make it safe for everyone to use. Our position has always been that when a law enforcement entity follows the appropriate procedures, we respond where legally required and technically feasible. We have a policy posted to our main website that provides additional background on our position on this matter.

Mr. Gillett continues in the same fashion for the remainder of the blog post. Charges Skype now monitors all user video and audio? False. Were Skype's changes made "to facilitate law enforcement access" to IMs? Nope. Has Skype ceased protecting user communications in general? Absolutely not.

Except in China, sort of--where Skype does have a "chat filter" which is "in accordance with local law."

So there you have it--outside China, where they're totally "transparent" about it, Skype isn't prying into your late-night flirtations or grandma showing off her new puppy to the grandkids. Apparently they will not do so in the future, either--unless of course the law requires it.

The eye in the cloud. (Microsoft)

Microsoft-owned Skype won't come clean on whether its architecture allows for wiretaps. When it comes to Skydrive, the software giant's cloud storage service, Microsoft is checking your 'private' folders, looking for swears and nudes.

Last Friday Slate reported Skype won't comment on whether it can now eavesdrop on conversations. Ryan Gallagher wrote, "In May 2011, Microsoft bought over Skype for $8.5 billion. One month later, in June, Microsoft was granted a patent for 'legal intercept' technology designed to be used with VOIP services like Skype to 'silently copy communication transmitted via the communication session.'"

In spite of hacker allegations about major changes in the way Skype works after being bought by Microsoft, the company wouldn’t tell Slate anything per “company policy”–a phrase beloved by slippery P.R. folks avoiding difficult subjects.

Where Skydrive--which requires you have a Windows Live account--is concerned, however, Microsoft is definitely watching you. As reported on July 18 by Myce.com, this is what recently happened to a Dutch user, screen name "WingsOfFury," when he discovered he could no longer use any of his Windows Live services:

After some investigation he found out that his account was blocked, preventing him from e-mailing from his phone, access to his files on his Skydrive account, downloading applications in the market and he also couldn’t login to Xbox Live account, which also renders his achievements useless.

After contact with Microsoft support he found out that his account was blocked because there was a 9 Gigabyte folder on his Skydrive that contained content which was not allowed by the code of conduct of Microsoft Skydrive. Interestingly the folder was a private folder, not shared to ayone else. The same data was also on a private folder on Dropbox, from which the user never received a complaint.

"WingsOfFury" likely violated Microsoft's Windows Live code of conduct, which aims to make the Web safe for Eisenhower's America with its list of "Prohibited Uses." These include depictions of "nudity of any sort including full or partial human nudity or nudity in non-human forms such as cartoons, fantasy art or manga," as well as "content that is protected by intellectual property laws, rights of privacy or publicity, or any other applicable law unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents."

The Skydrive story highlights a huge drawback to the Cloud--loss of even the illusion of privacy when storing digital content online. It also suggests if Microsoft will actively peruse what you store even in so-called "private" folders on Skydrive, it's pretty easy to infer they might not have a problem with authorities peeking at whatever you're transmitting via Skype.