Facebook sites seized by privacy group

 

A group called Control Your Info has seized a number of Facebook group sites in a bid to draw attention to the social networking site's lack security measures and privacy issues.

The anonymous group said they "exploited a security loophole in the social networking site" in order to 'hijack' hundreds of groups. Once they had taken control, the group changed the names of the groups, bombarded members with messages and edit details to draw attention to their cause.

Benevolent hackers

In a change from the norm, these hackers did not run havoc once they had hijacked the sites, but instead choose to point out the gaps in Facebook's security and to warn users of the dangers of having your details hacked.

Those who had their sites seized received the following message:

"Hello, we hereby announce that we have officially hijacked your Facebook group. This means we control a certain part of the information about you on Facebook. If we wanted we could make you appear in a bad way which could damage your image severly (sic).

For example we could rename your group and call it something very inappropriate and nasty, like 'I support paedophile's rights'. But have no fear - we won't.

We did not hack anything. Once we were administrators we owned the groups and could have changed any setting. We chose to change the picture, the name and the description of every group."

The group said they wanted to bring awareness to the fact that "while gaffes made in real life can be repaired, your online mistakes will be there forever". They also said that the security side of social media had been more less neglected and that accidential emails, posts, tweets were becoming more commonplace.

 

In the past, such gaffes have seen people accidentally reveal affairs, illegal activity or other nefarious activities they wish they'd kept secret.

Egg on their Facebook

Facebook of course are downplaying the security breach, and now that Control Your Info's point has been made, they've changed all the information back. Still, it does show how easy it is to have your details compromised.

In a statement, Facebook said, "There has been no hacking and there is no confidential information at risk."

"The groups in question have been abandoned by their previous owners, which means any group member has the option to make themselves an administrator in order to continue communication to the group.

"Group administrators have no access to confidential information and group members can leave a group at any time.

"For small groups, administrators can simply edit a group name or info, moderate discussion, and message group members.

"The names of large groups cannot be changed nor can anyone message all members.

"In the rare instances when we find that a group has been changed inappropriately, we will disable the group, which is the action we plan for these groups."

Despite their reassurances, it does show how easy it is to hijack someone's online details in this ever-increasing world of identity and data theft.

 

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