OurMine hack group defaults Facebook accounts on social networks

[Tomcat]

The hack group OurMine is known for regularly hacking the accounts of various famous personalities and large companies. At the same time, the attackers claim that they are white hackers who only draw public attention to security problems.

The ZDNet publication reports that this time the group, which has more than a dozen high-profile defacements and hacks on its account, made it to the official Facebook accounts on social networks. So, over the weekend, Facebook profiles on Twitter and Instagram were compromised:

• Facebook Twitter account (source);
• Facebook account on Instragram (source);
• Facebook Messenger Twitter account (source);
• Facebook Messenger Instagram account source).

Currently, control over all accounts has already been restored, and traces of deface have been removed.

Last week, ahead of the Super Bowl, OurMine members also compromised Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts for the US National Football League, 15 NFL teams, and sports TV channel ESPN. The hacks were definitely not coincidentally occurring in the run-up to the Super Bowl - the hackers clearly wanted to once again solidify their reputation and gain media coverage.

Then many noticed that the tweets posted by hackers on behalf of the victims were published through the Khoros application, which is often used by marketing and PR departments. Now, according to screenshots taken by many users, posts posted to Facebook Twitter accounts have also been posted via Khoros.

Khoros representatives have previously assured the media that their platform has not been compromised, which was confirmed by representatives of the NFL, adding that the investigation has identified individual attacks on specific social media accounts.

Let me remind you that the lists of victims at the hands of OurMine include: Mark Zuckerberg (head of Facebook, hacked Pinterest and Twitter), Dick Costolo (former head of Twitter, hacked Pinterest and Twitter), Sundar Pichai (head of Google, hacked Quora account and hackers' messages were duplicated in Twitter), Ev Williams (co-founder of Twitter, Blogger and Medium, Twitter hacked), Daniel Ek (Spotify CEO, Twitter hacked) and Brendan Ayrib (head of Oculus Rift, Twitter hacked ), as well as YouTube Pewdiepie, Hollywood actor Channing Tatum and many others famous personalities.

Also, at various times, the group hacked and defaced the sites and pages on social networks of many well-known companies, organizations and publications, including WikiLeaks, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, BBC, CNN, Netflix, Marvel Studios, Play Station Network and so on.

 

[Brother]

Facebook created its own clone and filled it with bots to fight fraud​

Facebook has taken a new approach to fighting scammers. The developers raised a special version of the online platform and launched bots there, programmed for malicious actions. According to the idea, the behavior of these bots will help Facebook find flaws and loopholes before real intruders do it.

The specialists will work out the new scheme on an alternative version of Facebook, which received the codename “WW”. According to information posted on the Facebook blog, "WW" will run on a platform identical to the original. This differentiates the Zuckerberg approach from standard simulation implementations.

Facebook's web development team has developed a special method - Web-Enabled Simulation (WES). It can be used to organize simulation on real, not virtual, infrastructure. Thus, specialists will have the opportunity to recreate the behavior of users on the social network as accurately as possible.

In other words, "WW" will act as a parallel version of the real Facebook site. Own messenger (Facebook Messenger), user profiles, pages, friend requests - all this will be on “WW”, but only for bots.

“The simulation is responsible for tens of millions of lines of code that can completely recreate the Facebook infrastructure. This means that bots will use exactly the same tools that are at the disposal of ordinary users of the social network, ”explains Mark Harman, a Facebook specialist.