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Facebook hackers take over community groups

by on11 November 2009


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Warning about security


Hactivists
claimed to have seized control of nearly 300 Facebook community groups yesterday. The move by an outfit called Control Your Info (CYI) is an effort to expose how vulnerable online reputations are to tampering. CYI said it was a doddle to get into poorly protected administrative settings at the website.

Writing in a blog post at www.controlyour.info the hackers said that they were not carrying out a scare tactic and did not have to hack into any software. The method used a feature of the software which can be used in bad ways.

Facebook Groups suffer from a major flaw, if an administrator of a group leaves, anyone can register as a new admin. So, in order to take control of a Facebook group, all you really have to do is a quick search on Google, the site said.

Once CYI accessed groups as administrators it had authority to change anything, including pictures, descriptions and settings. CYI fired off messages to the groups telling them they had been "hijacked" and the justification for the attacks. CYI rechristened each group with its name and logo.

CYI promised to restore the violated groups to their original conditions after it makes its point.
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