A worker picks up trash in front of a new logo and the name ‘Meta’ on the sign in front of Facebook headquarters on October 28, 2021 in Menlo Park, California.
Justin Sullivan | fake images
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Meta has said that around 50,000 Facebook users have been attacked by private surveillance companies.
Meta, which also owns and operates Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, said in a blog post Thursday that it alerted people it believes were the target of the malicious activity.
Seven “contract surveillance” companies have also been banned from Meta’s platforms, the company said. Actions were taken against Cobwebs Technologies, Cognyte, Black Cube, Blue Hawk CI, BellTroX, Cytrox, and an unknown Chinese entity. Four of them are located in Israel, one in India, one in North Macedonia and the other in China.
A Cobwebs spokesperson told CNBC: “Cobwebs operates only in accordance with the law and adheres to strict standards regarding the protection of privacy.” None of the other firms immediately responded to a request for comment from CNBC.
Meta said the seven firms carried out a combination of recognition, participation and exploitation. Some carried out all three, while others focused on one or two. The company, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, said that around 1,500 accounts linked to the seven firms have been removed from its platforms.
The companies targeted people, including journalists and human rights activists in more than 100 countries on behalf of their clients, Meta said, adding that they created fake accounts, befriended targets and used hacking methods to acquire information.
“The global contract surveillance industry targets people on the Internet to gather intelligence, manipulate them into revealing information, and compromise their devices and accounts,” wrote David Agranovich, Meta’s director of threat disruption, and Mike Dvilyanski, chief. of cyber espionage investigations. .
“These companies are part of a growing industry that provides intrusive software tools and surveillance services indiscriminately to any customer, regardless of who they are targeting or the human rights abuses they may allow,” they added.
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Jake Moore, a former head of digital forensics for a UK police force who is now ESET’s global cybersecurity advisor, said in a statement that it is absolutely necessary to delete those accounts.
“Although it is extremely difficult for Facebook to remove fake accounts and has previously had trouble spotting counterfeits, as some will inevitably continue to go through the algorithm,” he said. “However, it does highlight that Facebook is a tool used in social engineering and even to spy on people, so users should be reminded to limit the amount of information they post on public social networks.”
This is not the first major surveillance scandal of the year. In July, it emerged that Pegasus “spyware”, developed by Israel’s NSO Group, had been used to target thousands of people, including world leaders and journalists.
Meta is taking legal action against NSO Group for the alleged dissemination of Pegasus software via WhatsApp, while the US government blacklisted the company last month.
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