The social network Facebook on Thursday (12/16/2021) alerted about 50,000 people in more than a hundred countries that they could be the object of surveillance by “cybermercenaries” who work for both government agencies and companies.
Meta, the parent company of FacebookHe assured in a statement that he warned all those people that he suspected they were being the object of these actions through a system that the company launched in 2015. According to MetaThese companies or individuals that he describes as “cybermercenaries” officially offer their services against “criminals and terrorists.” However, the company said, “our months-long investigation concluded that the attacks are in fact indiscriminate and include journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, relatives of opponents and human rights activists,” he stressed.
The company noted that they have deactivated seven surveillance companies that were monitoring people in more than 100 countries, deleted 1,500 accounts and shared their findings with security researchers, other platforms and policy makers. The providers of these services are in China, Israel, Indicia and North Macedonia, according to Meta which explains that the monitoring process is divided into three phases, one for recognition, another for contact and a third for exploitation.
But nevertheless, Meta He warned that “the entities behind these surveillance operations are persistent” and hopes that they will continue to improve their tactics. “We will continue to share our findings when possible so that people are aware of the threats we are seeing and can take steps to strengthen the security of their accounts,” he concluded Facebook, which has been repeatedly criticized for its security flaws.
ama (efe, reuters)
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