Hackers attack Facebook users by phishing
Saturday, May 16th, 2009It was reported by Reuters on 16th May 2009 that in phishing attacks on Facebook’s million of users, they have successfully collected passwords from *some* of them. Exact number not revealed.
This is the latest in a series of attacks on the site.
Facebook said:
(i) it’s now “cleaning up damage”
(ii) it’s blocking compromised accounts.
Modus operandi of attackers:
(i) breaking into accounts of some Facebook members; presumably via common methods like weak password guessing?
(ii) send e-mails to friends of the member asking them to click on links to fake websites, designed to look like the Facebook home page. There, the victims were directed to log back in to the site, where in actual fact they logged into the one controlled by the hackers, hence revealing their passwords.
The fake domains include www.151.im, www.121.im and www.123.im.
As to the objective of the hackers, it’s believed that they wanted to take over a big number of accounts, then use them to send spam selling goods to Facebook members at large.
