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Russian Hacker Selling 1.5M Facebook Accounts

Posted by Soulskill on from the army-of-pokes dept.

Sir Codelot writes "A hacker who calls himself Kirllos has obtained and is now offering to sell 1.5 million Facebook IDs at astonishingly low prices — $25 per 1,000 IDs for users with fewer than 10 friends and $45 per 1,000 IDs for users with more than 10 friends. Looking at the numbers, Kirllos has stolen the IDs of one out of every 300 Facebook users. Quoting: 'VeriSign director of cyber intelligence Rick Howard told the New York Times that it appeared close to 700,000 had already been sold. Kirllos would have earned at least $25,000 from the scam. Howard told the newspaper that it was not apparent whether the accounts and passwords were legitimate, but a Russian underground hacking magazine reported it had tested some of Kirllos' previous samples and managed to get into people's accounts.'"

4 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Koobface by fineous+fingers · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hmm, maybe 1 out of every 300 Facebook users' computers is infected with Koobface......
    http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20002112-83.html

  2. Re:Play with fire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    For those of you who don't know how to leave Facebook... http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

  3. FB has been quite liberal with users' privacy by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...and yet, time after time, FB users ignored the abuse and kept on using the service. I really have little sympathy for such blatant and above all, stubborn disrespect for one's own security. And for what? To have "virtual friends"? To "keep in touch"? Both friends, conversing and socializing are more fulfilling when done in some of the more traditional ways.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  4. Re:Play with fire by Ron+Bennett · · Score: 3, Informative

    No one forces you to fill in all the information. Just have a page with your name on it if friends and family want you to have one. Just leave blank all the other sections. Then you have no problems with your personal information.

    Wrong! This is one of the biggest misconceptions people have. The true value isn't one's profile per se, but who one's "friends" are and the various interactions between them.

    Unless your friends are all strangers who know little about you, your personal information is likely more exposed on Facebook than you realize. Often I see instances of a parent, sibling, in-laws, significant other, etc post personal details on one's Facebook wall, gallery, etc that are often visible to others on one's friend list, and even often to friends of friends too.

    And that's not even getting into the issue of rogue friends, which can easily sneak in to gather information; among the value of stealing FB IDs ... it's not always about getting passwords, but rather collecting data for other uses, such as, spear-phishing / more targeted attacks - learning one's security questions they have setup on say a banking site.

    Ron