MORE THAN 60 LAKHS FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS HACKED

A massive spam attack has hit Facebook, causing
significant problems for the social networking site.
Facebook accounts are being flooded with graphic
images of violence and pornography. According to
reports, more than two lakhs Facebook accounts from
Bangalore have been attacked. A number of users
have complained that their profile pictures have been
put on porn sites. Globally, more than 60 lakh
Facebook accounts have been reportedly hacked since
Sunday night.
The virus, rapidly spreading across the social network,
has flooded accounts with gruesome images of
hardcore porn and violence. Facebook has also
acknowledged the presence of the virus and is
presently investigating the matter. The Christian
Post, which first reported about the virus, says the
virus and spam attacks could be the work of notorious
hackers group Anonymous. The hackers group had
previously pledged of launching attack on the social
networking site.
Meanwhile, Facebook released a statement, accepting
the existence of the virus. It said, “Protecting the
people who use Facebook from spam and malicious
content is a top priority for us, and we are always
working to improve our systems to isolate and remove
material that violates our terms. Recently, we
experienced a coordinated spam attack that exploited a
browser vulnerability. Our efforts have drastically
limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are
now in the process of investigating to identify those
responsible."
Facebook is expected to soon released a set of
guidelines for users, whose accounts had been hacked
or wanted to secure their accounts. The official
Facebook security blog page says, "Security and
safety are at the core of Facebook. We have entire
teams dedicated to building tools that give people even
more control over their account, and specifically the
way they access their information. In fact, many of
our most talented engineers are working exclusively on
creating a secure environment on Facebook."
The privacy breach is certainly a serious jolt to
Facebook, which claims of having more than 750
million users. Facebook has previously said that it has
been consistently attacked by spammers and hackers.
However, the social networking site should do more to
prevent such attacks in order to sustain its popularity.