"A database of that size containing the private information such as phone numbers of a lot of Facebook's users would certainly lead to bad actors taking advantage of the data to perform social-engineering attacks [or] hacking attempts," Gal told Insider.
Gal discovered the leaked data in January when a user in the same hacking forum advertised an automated bot that could provide phone numbers for hundreds of millions of Facebook users for a price. Motherboard reported on that bot's existence at the time and verified that the data was legitimate.
facebook hack online.com
Johnstone, M. (2018). Facebook hack reveals the perils of using a single account to log in to other services. The Conversation. -hack-reveals-the-perils-of-using-a-single-account-to-log-in-to-other-services-104227
In January 2009, phishers were able to hack into accounts and use them to defraud the friends of each account owner. In August of the same year, the bad guys took advantage of wall posts and streams to launch phishing attacks. In 2010, two years after Facebook Chat was introduced, phishers utilized the site feature to fool other Facebook users and steal their credentials.
According to a new warning message making the rounds on Facebook, users should not accept friend requests from Jayden K. Smith. Jayden K. Smith is out to falsely seek your virtual friendship just to hack your account. Jayden K. Smith is after you and all your friends. Jayden K. Smith is not your friend. So, who the heck is Jayden K. Smith, and why is this person suddenly out to hack as many Facebook accounts as possible? Actually, Jayden K. Smith the nefarious hacker doesn't exist, and the whole thing is just the latest iteration of a tried-and-true internet hoax. Friends (Facebook-official and otherwise), there's no reason to share that message on the social network.
Versions of this hoax have been circulating via Facebook Messenger for years, with Facebook users with pure hearts acting in good faith sending it to their friends in an effort to protect them. Although the name of the hacker and the exact wording of the missive changes, the content follows a formula that pretty much mirrors the panic surrounding the one featuring the alleged bad actor du jour, Jayden K. Smith. It reads:
Sometimes, it's not Jayden K. Smith who's out to wreak havoc on your Facebook account and beyond, but some equally benign and fictional character like Anwar Jitou, Tanner Dwyer, or Bobby Roberts, according to The Telegraph. The good news is that even if Jayden, Anwar, Tanner, Bobby, and their ilk had colluded to form a hacking ring by firing off Facebook friend requests to strangers, the plan wouldn't work. The fact-checker site Snopes reported that "accepting a Facebook friend request from a stranger will not provide hackers with access to your computer and online accounts."
What's really going on in many of these cases, according to the site, is that Facebookers are inserting the names of people they know into these ubiquitous warnings just to prank those (real-life, non-hacker) people.
Facebook users who may be affected are greeted with an on-screen warning that their account may have been the subject of unauthorised access following the Adobe hack. It says: "Facebook was not directly affected by the incident, but your Facebook account is at risk because you were using the same password in both places. To secure your account, you'll need to answer a few questions and change your password. For your protection, no-one can see you on Facebook until you finish."
Meta traced the effort to take over the social media accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military leaders back to a shadowy hacker organization known as Ghostwriter, which previous research has linked to Belarus, a Russian ally. Ghostwriter has a history of spreading content critical of NATO, and also has tried to hack email accounts. 2ff7e9595c
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