With its 2.9 billion active users in 2022[1], Facebook has no shortage of bait for potential black hat hackers. No less than 500 TB of data swarms and circulates every day[2]. A hen laying the golden eggs shamelessly coveted by small and large hackers, unofficially registered in the dark web register.
Social networks, a favorite target for wild hacking
Whether you like gardening or not, social networks are fertile ground for cyberattacks of all kinds. They are the favorite prey of ill-intentioned hackers, who track down all the information that Internet users make available to them without realizing the danger they run. Logins, passwords, names, email addresses…
Social networks are full of this data that is often believed to be harmless, but which opens up an infinite horizon of possibilities to malicious computer hackers. Money extortion, identity theft, theft of bank account numbers, cyberbullying, fake news campaigns: here is a small panel of the activities in which black hats indulge by compiling your personal information. Twitter, Yahoo, WhatsApp, Snapchat, TikTok, and so on and the best, are among the lucky ones.
Not to mention Facebook, which is a prime target for malicious hacking and has already experienced some famous setbacks. In 2018, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined Mark Zuckerberg’s social network €565,000 for data breaches in connection with the siphoning of information from 87 million Facebook accounts by Cambridge Analytica[3]. To this ridiculous sanction, was also added a fine of 5 billion dollars decided by the American competition authorities in 2019[4].
More recently in 2021, Business Insider revealed the data of over 533 million Facebookers was uploaded to a hacking forum. More than 106 countries were affected by this massive intrusion, including 32 million users in the United States and probably 20 million in France[5]. Like what, even with a web behemoth, data leakage seems child’s play.
Computer hacking within everyone’s reach?
Well, yes, imagine. Computer hacking is no longer exclusively reserved for a circle of insiders or elite hackers. Quite the contrary, now malicious hacking is becoming more democratic and becoming the hobby with a somewhat mercantile aim of a handful of novice Internet pirates or small sizes without faith or law.
Where do these dark web amateurs come from who can cause a lot of damage to your personal data, despite their computer background? According to a NordVPN study conducted in 2021 and 2022[6]they are generally from developing countries and see cybercrime as a good source of money.
How do they discover the inner workings of cybercrime? Thanks to a slew of online gear that teaches the art and how to hack well. Amateur pirates just have to help themselves, neither seen nor known. Three-step journey of a future malicious hacker:
- Become familiar with the basics of computer hacking by surfing innocently on forums and blogs with evocative names: “Tutorial: how to hack a Facebook account”, “Hack Facebook in 2 minutes”, “Easytutorial: how to hack a Facebook account from A to Z”…
- Choose your bedside book to deepen your knowledge and spend sweet nights daydreaming about easy hacks. Amazon is a small gold mine in this area: Guide and Tricks to Hack Wi-Fi Networks de Time Army, A beginner’s guide to hackingd’Alan T-Norman, Guide you hacker by Kevin Droz, etc. So many readings that inform you in detail about the methods of black hat to teach you how to protect yourself…
- Obtain juicy data from reseller hackers, even if it means leaving a few feathers behind (personal data and biftons included).
Top hacking techniques
Unscrupulous hackers demonstrate boundless inventiveness and their techniques are rather well established. What are their preferred methods?
- Phishing or phishing: ideal for pulling up a mass of information in your net! The hacker gently pretends to be a serious interlocutor, by sending you nice little emails entitled: “Resetting your Facebook password”, “Deleting your Facebook account within 48 hours for copyright infringement”, “Number social security to finalize your Facebook account”… All you have to do is open the email or click on an attachment, and the trap closes.
The parade: be as suspicious as a weasel and do not open these misleading emails or their enticing little attachments. Check Facebook address compliance.
- The brute force attack: a computer program scrolls through all the possible combinations until it finds your username or password, while the hacker picks his teeth, his toes fanned out.
The parade: lock your Facebook account as much as possible by activating multi-factor authentication which forces you to identify yourself in two phases[7]. Also complicate your password by mixing numbers, upper and lower case letters, as well as convoluted special characters. The Government’s Cybermalveillance site recommends choosing between 8 and 12 characters[8].
- Malware trick: A piece of malicious software hides in a free download that’s just a click away from anyone. In 2018, it was humorous drawings that lured the Internet user to switch him to a malicious site[9]. Now it’s the malware called Ducktail that steals your Facebook credentials[10] or even the Schoolyard Bully Trojan that infiltrates educational apps and children’s Facebook accounts[11].
The parade: avoid clicking faster than your shadow as soon as you see a free download. Instead, check the reliability of the source. If in doubt, stay away.
- Keylogging: this little feat of espionage offers the hacker the possibility of recording your keystrokes thanks to an intrusion into your computer system. He can therefore access all your information and, by domino effect, seize the data of your contacts, those of your contacts’ contacts and so on. Cascading snowball effect. Admit that it fucks the chips!
The parade: make sure to apply all the previous measures, but also to have a shock antivirus always up to date and efficient. To avoid total game over!
[1] https://fr.statista.com/statistiques/565258/facebook-nombre-d-utilisateurs-actifs-mensuels-dans-le-monde/
[2] https://www.lemondeinformatique.fr/actualites/lire-facebook-supporte-500-to-de-nouvelles-donnees-par-jour-50140.html
[3] https://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/hightech/cambridge-analytica-facebook-ecope-dune-amende-symbolique-142961
[4] https://www.lefigaro.fr/secteur/high-tech/scandale-cambridge-analytica-facebook-paye-725-millions-de-dollars-pour-mettre-fin-a-un-proces-20221223
[5] https://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/hightech/facebook-les-donnees-personnelles-de-500-millions-dutilisateurs-auraient-ete-rendues-publiques-1304125
[6] https://nordvpn.com/fr/blog/first-time-hackers/
[7] https://fr-fr.facebook.com/help/148233965247823
[8] https://www.cybermalveillance.gouv.fr/tous-nos-contenus/actualites/comment-choisir-un-bon-mot-de-passe
[9] https://www.leparisien.fr/high-tech/alerte-a-l-hameconnage-par-des-liens-sur-facebook-20-12-2018-7973280.php
[10] https://www.phonandroid.com/facebook-gare-a-ce-malware-qui-vole-vos-identifiants-et-vos-donnees-sensibles.html
[11] https://www.futura-sciences.com/tech/actualites/cybersecurite-pirater-facebook-devenu-jeu-enfants-102138/
