Tag Archive for: facebook

Hacking experts reveal the five most dangerous Facebook posts you can make

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Hacking experts have issued an urgent warning to all Facebook users about how certain posts could leave you at risk of being hacked.

Security whiz Javvad Malik has urged app users to be extremely careful online as even the most innocent posts can be used against you.

He says that if you give away too much information you are leaving yourself open to being hacked.

He said: “Any information publicly posted can be used by criminals.

“Even seemingly trivial information can be put together to build a better picture of the victim.”

Jay, who leads security awareness at KnowBe4, told the Sun: “Broadly speaking, the most dangerous information that you can put out there relates to password reset questions.

Even the most innocent posts can be useful to cybercriminals

“So things like mother’s maiden name, schools, street, etc.

“Also, it’s important to realise that information that people post may target those around them.

“So parents posting excessive information about their children can be used against their children as opposed to the parents.”

Cyber-expert Jamie Akhtar said people need to be careful about sharing any data that could be used to verify your identity like your date of birth, full address or mother’s maiden name.

The CyberSmart CEO said that everyone should be selective in sharing data with third party gaming and quiz apps as many of them are scams and advised against sharing your location data as this could be used to conduct physical cyberattacks and other crimes.

He urged people to be wary of anyone contacting you out of the blue who you don’t know and never go into any detail about where you work or what you do as this could lead to your employer being targeted by cybercriminals.

Earlier this month it was revealed that a hacker who gets paid to hack company computer systems and identify security flaws is set to become a millionaire.

Teen hacker Corben Leo could have triggered stock market crash or sparked spy accusations

Corben Leo runs his own cyber security firm, which has a partnership with the US…

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Facebook Finds More Ukraine-Themed Hacking, Disinformation

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Facebook also identified separate campaigns, which the company blocked, where hackers associated with the Iranian government attempted to create fake profiles. Attackers posed as recruiters, human rights activists or academics, to trick specific targets including dissidents, politicians and journalists into engaging and downloading malicious software to their computers.

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Facebook parent Meta says Russians targeting Ukrainians with misinformation and hacking attempts on Facebook

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Facebook parent company Meta said Sunday night that it has taken down a coordinated Russian influence operation that was targeting Ukrainians across Facebook and Instagram. The company said the misinformation campaign has ties to another Russian network in the Donbas region that was previously banned from Facebook in April 2020. 

In addition to the influence operation, Meta said it also took down a coordinated hacking group attempting to target and compromise accounts within Ukraine.  

“We took this operation down, we’ve blocked their domains from being shared on our platform, and we’ve shared information about the operations with other tech platforms with researchers and with governments,” David Agranovich, director of threat disruption for Meta, told reporters.

Agranovich said the coordinated campaign used fake accounts to target high-profile Ukrainians including journalists, members of the military and public thinkers. Those behind the campaign operated fictitious personas and were also active on YouTube, Twitter, Telegram, and two Russian social media sites “to appear more authentic” and “avoid scrutiny,” Agranovich said.

The operation also ran a handful of websites, Meta said, which would publish claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state. Agranovich said the content created by the influence operators was “primarily off of our platform.”

“The idea was they would write an article, posting that article onto their website as if they were a reporter or a commentator and then the accounts were really just designed to post links to their own websites and direct people off platform,” Agranovich said. 

While Meta described the influence operation as a “relatively small network” consisting of approximately 40 accounts, pages, and groups across Facebook — with fewer than 4,000 followers on Facebook and not even 500 on Instagram — the company would not say how many users interacted with the misinformation or how many times the posts were shared with others. 

“What we’ve generally found is that the best proxy for the size of these operations ends up being the number of people who follow them,” Agranovich said. “In general, what we saw here…

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Finland warns of Facebook accounts hijacked via Messenger phishing

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Facebook

Finland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-FI) warns of an ongoing phishing campaign attempting to hijack Facebook accounts by impersonating victims’ friends in Facebook Messenger chats.

In the alert, the NCSC-FI says that all Facebook users who received messages from online acquaintances asking for their phone numbers and a verification number delivered via SMS are the targets of this ongoing scam.

If they provide the information they’re asked for, the attackers will take control of their accounts by changing the password and associated email address.

Once hijacked, the Facebook accounts will target other potential victims from their friend list in similar scams.

“In the attempts, a hacked account is used to send messages with the aim of obtaining the recipients’ telephone numbers and two-factor authentication codes to hijack their Facebook accounts,” the cybersecurity agency explained.

To successfully hijack their targets’ Facebook accounts, the scammers will go through the following steps:

  1. They first send a message from the previously compromised friend’s account via Facebook Messenger.
  2. They ask for the target’s phone number, saying they want to help with registering for an online contest promising prizes of thousands of euros.
  3. The next stage involves asking for a code sent via SMS allegedly sent by the contest’s organizers to confirm the entry.
  4. If the SMS confirmation code is shared with the scammers, they will use it together with the phone number to access and hijack the victim’s Facebook account.
  5. Next, they will change the account password and email address and start forwarding similar scams to the victims’ friends.

“The best way to protect yourself from this scam is to be wary of Facebook messages from all senders, including people you know,” the NCSC-FI advised.

“If the message sender is a friend, you can contact him, for example, by phone and ask if he is aware of this message. This information should not be disclosed to strangers.”

Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has recently filed a federal lawsuit in a California court to disrupt other ongoing phishing attacks targeting Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp users.

The threat actors behind these…

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