Oops! Meta Security Guards Hacked Facebook Users

Facebook parent Meta has disciplined or fired at least 25 workers for allegedly hacking into user accounts. Some of the workers were contract security guards, we’re told.

Wait … disciplined or fired? How were they not all fired? And prosecuted? And how come security guards have access to Facebook’s internal account-recovery tools?

All these questions and more will be asked in today’s SB Blogwatch. Please tell me it’s the weekend tomorrow.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Hello there.

‘Oops’ not Even the Half of It

What’s the craic? Kirsten Grind, Robert McMillan, Salvador Rodriguez and Jim Oberman tag team to report—“Employees, Security Guards Fired for Hijacking User Accounts”:

“Workers accepted thousands of dollars in bribes”
Meta … has fired or disciplined more than two dozen employees and contractors over the last year whom it accused of improperly taking over user accounts, in some cases allegedly for bribes. … Some of those fired were contractors who worked as security guards [who] were given access to the Facebook parent’s internal mechanism for employees to help users having trouble with their accounts … known internally as “Oops.”
…
Oops, an acronym for Online Operations, is supposed to be fairly limited to special cases, like friends, family, business partners and public figures, but its usage has climbed. … In 2020, the channel serviced about 50,270 tasks, up from 22,000 three years earlier.
…
In some cases workers accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from outside hackers to access user accounts. … Because so many people depend on social media for their businesses, or to manage critically important aspects of their lives, gaining illicit control of an account can be lucrative.

And Aaron Mok runs amok—“Meta reportedly accused dozens of workers”:

“Some of the fired workers denied the accusations”
As part of an internal investigation, Meta executives reportedly found that some employees were abusing Oops by working with third parties to gain unauthorized access to accounts in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars. … Meta fired dozens of…