Facebook has once again appeared on the lips of the media, because of some more controversial news. The last time we saw Facebook in the news it almost destroyed their stock prices and all of the investors pretty much bailed, once the information was confirmed. Last time Facebook had a flop, it was because of the privacy of their user’s profiles. They were accused of selling the data that they owned to numerous companies, without the consent of their users.
Even though this was included as major news, nobody really reacted in a way that was too shocking. It was as if all of this info was known beforehand and everybody was in on it. But it still sent quakes around the world, making the companies update their privacy policies and informing their customers about the supposed changes.
Why is Facebook in controversy again?
This time, however, the reason Facebook is in the news may not be their fault entirely. The internet is a big place, it is the home of everything and everyone who decides to utilize it. One of the most dangerous residents of the internet is probably the hacker. These types of hacked were able to procure about $600 million worth of account data which they are selling in the deepest depths of the web.
The dark web
The dark web is a place where everything controversial, everything shady and sometimes everything illegal can happen without too much interference from the law. This is a place where sometimes the worst of the worst gather, even though data selling is not the worst offenses, it is still privacy infringement at its finest. Accounts are now worth somewhere between $5 and $10. Everyone who wants to obtain these account data will have to pay in digital currency or else the banks would be able to trace their transfers.
Because of a breach within the digital securities of the webpage, hackers were able to access Facebook’s token storage. With this, they procured as much as they could and then disappeared never to be seen again. Until these very tokens started to appear on the dark web as commodities for sale. Tokens are basically keys that you as a user are using in order to access your account.
Is Facebook saying anything?
Facebook has already denied allegations of being an accomplice of these hackers and leaving the breech intentionally. It is still quite disturbing to think that Facebook has the capability to do that even if it didn’t do it. The account data is now sold on the deep web, on a website called Dream Market. This is where people can buy multiple digital products with digital currencies like Bitcoin and etc.
The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has also come out with a statement, saying that the reason behind these attacks is the weakness of the tools they have against hackers. He expressed his willingness to start working on more advanced defense mechanisms to prevent the same issue in the future.