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Chinese Spies Used Fake Facebook Profile To Friend NATO Officials

Posted by samzenpus on from the keep-your-friends-close-and-you-friends-list-closer dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Late last year, senior British military officers, Defense Ministry officials, and other government officials were tricked into becoming Facebook friends with someone masquerading as United States Navy admiral James Stavridis. By doing so, they exposed their own personal information (such as private e-mail addresses, phone numbers, pictures, the names of family members, and possibly even the details of their movements), to unknown hackers."

4 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Seriously, why? by Dynamoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously, why do these people use Facebook anyway? It's just a massive security risk for people in that position, and presumably the only upside is they can post "Just nuked Tehran lol" on their wall when the balloon goes up..

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  2. I deleted my FB account 3 months ago by jerryjnormandin · · Score: 1, Interesting

    As I'm getting older I'm starting to value my privacy more and more. So... I deleted all my friends, posts, and pictures on facebook and renamed my name to a fictitious character. As I'm getting older I value my privacy. If I want to talk about something I'll wait until I see them. I don't need everyone knowing my business. I think all of us here should do the same. Too many people are addicted to facebook. It's an illness. Do you have any idea how many work colleagues hit facebook during work hours or on the phone hitting fb during the commute home ?

  3. No damage by Hentes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Their personal information is their property, and they are free to share with with the rest of the world. As long as they don't post sensitive military information on Facebook, there is no damage done.

  4. Re:Facebook is secure against hackers? by TheLink · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And even if you are friends with someone it doesn't mean they can see your data.

    At one point of time Facebook in the "confirm friend request" step let you add friends straight to a friend list of your choice. You could lock down that friend list really tight, so that they couldn't see much, while you _might_ be able to see their data (and thus decide whether "Spongebob" is really someone you know). Doesn't seem possible now. You have to add them as friend first then move them to the restricted list. So there's a window of opportunity for them to get the data out. If I'm wrong about this do tell me how to do it.

    But no matter what privacy "controls" and "promises" Facebook provides, Facebook can see all the data and actions, so NATO officials shouldn't be exposing confidential data and actions to FB. Especially since some of that data may be passed to people outside the USA whether by apps/partners or by people who are paid to moderate stuff: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9118778/The-dark-side-of-Facebook.html

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