Facebook Hacked: Porn Spam Litters Website, Social Network Scrambles to Investigate Hacks
Facebook is now investigating the spam hacks that have permeated the social networking website with sexually explicit images over the past few days.
“Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority,” said a spokesperson for Facebook in a statement.
Many of the hacks are known as "click' spam. Popular spams involve Kim Kardashian or Miley Cyrus with a link to a video. The link will have an enticing caption, such as: "After watching this video, I lost all respect for (insert name)."
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Upon clicking, the link is a dead end, and a hacker accesses the account and sends the same spam to all the user’s friends.
Popular hacks show manipulated pornographic images of pop star Justin Bieber and pictures of mutilated animals.
The spokesperson at Facebook acknowledged the recent hacks.
“We are always working to improve our systems to isolate and remove material that violates our terms...we have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue," he said.
Graham Cluley, of the security company Sophos, said this type of issue could impel Facebook users away from the social network website.
“It seems highly offensive spam content has successfully spread via Facebook for 24 hours or more,” Cluley wrote in a blog post.
“It's precisely this kind of problem which is likely to drive people away from the site. Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again," Cluley added.
Hacking was a devastating problem for MySpace just a couple of years ago. Spam deluged the website, resulting in many of its users switching to the "safer" Facebook. Now Facebook is having even worse problems fending hacks.
Facebook terms and conditions restrict nudity. The social network has 800 million members and is familiar with hackers.
"Spamford" Wallace, a well-known hacker, was detained earlier in the year for breaking into over 500,000 Facebook accounts.
