FACEBOOK HACKING 2015 SOFTWARE

Not even the specific number of 50 million accounts is new: Cambridge AnalyticaвЂ™s chief researcher has been boasting about having a 50 million-person sample size in his data sets since 2014, at least.ДЄnd weвЂ™ve even known, since 2015 or so, that, as Tech Crunch put it, вЂњ it was always kind of shady that Facebook let you volunteer your friendsвЂ™ status updates, check-ins, location, interests and more to third-party apps.вЂќ In fact, weвЂ™ve known most of the details concerning CAвЂ™s massive data research, and the use of that research in political campaigns, for several years thanks to a 2015 Guardian article, a viral 2016 article in Das Magazin (later published by Vice), and a March 2017 article by the Intercept. Or, more accurately, we might say that вЂњnewsвЂќ вЂњbroke.вЂќ News broke over the weekend of March 17 that Cambridge Analytica (CA), a data analytics firm that worked with Donald TrumpвЂ™s election campaign, had extracted Facebook data from 50 million user accounts. The official total, as revealed by Facebook in April, stands at 87 million users. An Apple spokesman declined to discuss the research.Update: The claim that 50 million Facebook accounts had been affected by the Cambridge Analytica breach has been revised. An FBI spokesman did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Twitter and Facebook. Thakur said law enforcement agencies in the United States and Europe had been apprised of SymantecвЂ™s findings. Symantec then looked for where the same tools had been employed. They could be offering themselves for hire or could be breaking into companies on speculation and trying to sell the information or trade shares based on it.ДЄmong the teamвЂ™s greatest strengths is its operational security, as it uses multiple proxies to disguise its location, employs heavy encryption where it stores digital loot, and strikes within a day or two of entry before wiping its tracks.ДЄ break in SymantecвЂ™s research came when a regular backup was made of a targeted machine during a 12-hour window when some of MorphoвЂ™s custom-made navigation tools were still in use. Thakur said his team thinks the group might have about 10 members around the world, with some fluent in English and one or more perhaps having worked at an intelligence agency. The United States, Europe and Canada have the most victims. Morpho has breached about 49 organizations that Symantec knows about since 2012, with the number penetrated each year rising to 14 by 2015. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating some FIN4 breaches at large, publicly traded companies. Thakur said Symantec and other security companies such as FireEye Inc were tracking less than a half dozen such groups, including one called FIN4.ДЇIN4 has less technical skill but uses knowledge of the investment banking world and strong social engineering, or trickery, to harvest email credentials and discover material financial information. вЂњThe only way they could use it, in our opinion, is through some financial market or by selling it.вЂќ

вЂњThey are very focused, wanting everything valuable from the top companies of the world,вЂќ said Vikram Thakur, a Symantec senior manager.

The group stays below the radar with a small number of carefully targeted attacks.

FACEBOOK HACKING 2015 SOFTWARE

security software vendor, Symantec Corp, the group appears to be among the few that display significant talent without backing from a national government. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/FilesДЄccording to new research from the largest U.S. A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw in this Februillustration file photo.

Facebook hacking 2015