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Facebook's Black Markets Just Keystrokes Away, Researchers Say (nbcnews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

Facebook is connecting not only old friends, but also new criminals. Researchers uncovered more than 70 Facebook groups openly selling black-market cyberfraud services, some of which they say had been running for up to eight years. From a report: The now-removed groups had more than 385,000 members in total and offered a variety of illegal services, from credit card information and identity theft to website hacking and email phishing, according to cybersecurity researchers at Talos, the threat intelligence division for the technology company Cisco. By searching for a few well-known fraud terms, the researchers exposed a sizable online black market hiding in plain sight on the world's most popular social media site. "Selling CVV fresh $5" read one post for stolen credit card numbers. "100k mail list fresh" touted another from the "Professional Spammer's and Hacker's [sic]" page. Both posts included purported screenshots of their wares.

7 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. How is this news? by Falconnan · · Score: 2

    Seriously... LIterally anything can be used for illicit purposes if it can be used for legitimate purposes. This is no different from when smartphones became a thing... "Your kids could be watching PORN on their phones!" No shit, news person, it plays video.

    1. Re:How is this news? by war4peace · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's news because, with the proper filtering and monitoring in place, such groups could be detected very easily. Yes, I know, privacy and shit, but let's face it, once on Facebook, privacy is gone in an instant.
      It's very hard to believe a large group of 385K members can fly under the radar for so long. This can't be explained as incompetence.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    2. Re:How is this news? by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      It's news because, with the proper filtering and monitoring in place, such groups could be detected very easily.

      That's doubtful. You might be able to detect the groups as they exist currently, but not as they will in order to circumvent the systems you put into place. Making something illegal doesn't make a thing go away as seen during probation or the failed war on drugs. Any time spent trying to stamp out the problem that way would be better spent in addressing the underlying problem.

    3. Re:How is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'd rather that Facebook do nothing about such groups -- no filtering whatsoever -- but report anyone that uses it to the police immediately.

      We won't catch the smarter ones that aren't doing this stuff in broad daylight, but I'm happy to catch anyone doing this stuff.

  2. It's time: End so-called 'social media' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Let's face facts, people: Twitter, Facebook, and their ilk? They've become malignant cancers to our civilization.
    Leave them behind, let them die.
    ..and nothing of value will be lost.

  3. It's news because it's a mistake by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 1

    It's news because, with the proper filtering and monitoring in place, such groups could be detected very easily. Yes, I know, privacy and shit, but let's face it, once on Facebook, privacy is gone in an instant.
    It's very hard to believe a large group of 385K members can fly under the radar for so long. This can't be explained as incompetence.

    And the problem is in the determination of "legal".

    The term "legal" (and "illegal") is defined by the state, and in many instances people disagree with the state's assertion (that something is illegal) and ask it for proof. We call such proof "trials", and in many cases the state cannot prove it's assertion, in that instance.

    There are also rules and procedures to ensure that people don't get unfairly caught up in the process. For example, being unfairly accused and suffering harm can lead to a lawsuit to recover damages.

    Having Facebook monitor illegal activity is bad is because we're asking non-government entities to enforce the law by common-face reading of what the law is, without fear of consequence for getting things wrong. It's also ripe for abuse, and a tool that can be used to unfairly force a viewpoint on the masses.

    It's easy to point to specific cases and say "that's obviously illegal", but note that under those rules VCRs were illegal (until taken to court), DeCSS was illegal, and repairing your John Deere tractor is illegal. How much "hate speech" is actually illegal speech? How much of the conservative viewpoint actually advocates violence?

    And in these cases, Facebook (or Twitter, or Google, or whoever) can make mistakes and when called on it, say "oh, it was just a mistake, we've corrected it", with no penalties for doing so.

    The state declaration of "illegal" has a healthy fear of repercussions from mistakes, but the private entity has none.

  4. Kim Dotcom says... by BringsApples · · Score: 1

    ...Mark Zuckerberg should have his mansion raided, items seized and brought before a court of law over his crimes.

    --
    Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.