'Anonymous' Facebook Attack Operation an Ad Campaign?
An unverified entity claiming to be the “hacktivist” group Anonymous wants to target Facebook and shut it down on Nov. 5.
"Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy," says a video posting.
Facebook in the past has assured people that all private information isn't shared unless authorized to do so. But according to the group that posted up the claim, Facebook has provided personal information to foreign and authoritarian governments like Egypt and Syria, in addition to "giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your 'privacy' settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you ‘delete’ your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time."
"Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more 'private' is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family."
The hacker(s) posted the video and a press release including the above comments in an attempt to pep up others to join the fight against Facebook.
However, it isn't clear whether Anonymous is really behind it or not.
Although a Twitter account associated to the Anonymous collective responded to the post with "FYI - #OpFacebook is being organized by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it in fact be acting independently from referred as 'Anons' posted up," many media outlets are skeptical about the authenticity of the operation and have recurred to stating "time will tell if it is real or not."
Other details that have also caused skepticism from specialists are the "strange Twitter name used and links to websites with adverts," said security expert Eugene Kaspersky, as reported by The Register.
To Kaspersky, Anonymous attacking Facebook on Nov. 5 is "most probably fake" and SlashGear mentioned that all this "MAY be an elaborate plot to get ad revenue via the sites linked."
Nov. 5 is Guy Fawkes Day in Britain, or the day in 1605 remembered for unraveling Guy Fawkes' failed attempt to blow up England's House of Lords.
