Facebook responding to malicious attacks
Over the last few days thousands of people have been affected by the latest attack on Facebook by a group of hackers. Images containing scenes of violence and pornography have been posted as part of a spam attack on the social media giant.
The posts have affected thousands of Facebook’s 800 million users with some users saying enough is enough and deleting their accounts, while others have had to put up with images of animal abuse, extreme violence and pornographic images. Most of the posts appear on a friend’s account which would be visible to everyone bar the friend themselves.
Facebook has said that the attack worked by users being tricked into copying and pasting malicious javascript into their browser URl bar causing the spread of the offensive content. None of the usual hacking culprits have admitted to the attacks as of yet, however it is widely believed to be the work of Anonymous who stated that they wanted to destroy Facebook earlier in the month.
Whoever started the attacks have definitely left Facebook battered and bruised after this latest exploit. It is the latest in security issues that the site has been troubled by in the last couple of months leaving a lot of people wary of using the social networking site due to fears about the security of their data.
Facebook also stated that it was a very strange sort of attack as most that they discover are looking for a financial payout but this one appears to be doing it just to harm the site. The security department for the site have issued some guidelines to help curb the attacks on the site:
– Never copy and past unknown code into the address bar
– Always use an up-to-date browser
– Use the report link on Facebook to flag suspicious behaviour or content on friends’ accounts.
The BBC website reported that Facebook knew who was responsible for the spamming and is working closely with their legal team to exact their revenge.
Where you effected by the spam attacks? If so share your experiences with us in the comment or on our facebook page
Source: Mashable
