Facebook hackers sell private messages from 81,000 accounts

MANILA, Philippines – Private messages from at least 81,000 hacked Facebook accounts are being sold, according to a BBC report published on Friday, November 2.

According to the BBC, the breach first came to light when a post on an English-language forum advertised the sale of the details of 120 million Facebook accounts.

Cybersecurity company Digital Shadows investigated the claim for the BBC and confirmed that 81,000 of the profiles posted as samples online contained private messages.

Photos of a recent holiday, chats about a concert, and an intimate conversation were among the private messages that were being sold.

Despite the hackers’ claims that they had the details of more than 120 million accounts, Facebook said that their security has not been compromised. Digital Shadows also told the BBC that Facebook would have noticed such a large breach.

Instead, Facebook said, malicious browser extensions are to blame for monitoring the victims’ activity and sending their messages and details to the hackers.

“We have contacted browser-makers to ensure that known malicious extensions are no longer available to download in their stores,” Facebook executive Guy Rosen said, adding that they’ve also contacted law enforcement to help them take down the website that posted information from the accounts.

Most of the details belonged to Facebook users based in Ukraine and Russia, but some were also from the UK, US, Brazil, and elsewhere. – Rappler.com