Facebook Under Increased Spam Attacks

According to Facebook’s security chief, it was in January that the company first noticed a rise in hack attacks and realized they’d become a major target. Among them were phishing attacks on members taking the form e-mails that purport to be from Facebook. There had even been unsuccessful data harvesting attempts.

 

One recent attack was traced to a Seattle hosting service, he told an audience at the Infosecurity Europe conference, being held in London. However, further investigation revealed that the service appeared to be paid by shell companies in Cyprus and Canada, so Facebook sent people to trace them.

 

"We took action against the individuals and the companies, and obtained an injunction against their use of Facebook," he said, adding that they’d won a $500,000 judgment.