(AP-U.S. News) Josef Federman - Facebook said Wednesday it has broken up a hacker network used by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' intelligence service in an attempt to keep tabs on journalists, human rights activists and government critics. Facebook said the PA's Preventive Security Service "used fake and compromised accounts to create fictitious personas." Posing as young women, journalists and political activists, they then sought "to build trust with people they targeted and trick them into installing malicious software." The malware, disguised as chat applications, would give the security agency access to targets' phones, including contacts, text messages, locations and even keystrokes. Mike Dvilyanski, Facebook's head of cyber espionage investigations, said nearly 800 people were targeted.
2021-04-22 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive